The Tale of Tsuki Ren
by HinakoNamikaze99
Summary: Tsuki Ren and her brother Hiroto are the last prodigy survivors of the Tsuki Clan. But will their presence bring the downfall or the victory of the Naruto World? NaruHina pairing OCxPending WARNING: Yaoi and romantic tension. M-rated in later chapters.
1. Introductions

**Disclaimer**: Naruto and pretty much everyone in it belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I only own my OCs.

**Name: **Tsuki, Ren (last, first)

**Age:** 12/13

**Appearance:** Wavy, waist-length, raven-coloured locks tied in a low ponytail, electric blue slits, snowy-white skin, wears a black tank top and a short, pleated black skirt with tight black pants underneath, bandages wrapped around the right leg, standard black ninja sandals, dark blue fighting gloves and the Konoha headband tied around the neck, wields a black katana called Ying. Occasionally wears a pouch.

**Personality: **A blunt, amusingly pure person who fights without regrets and highly analytical to any situation, is extremely loyal to her friends and family and is very brave. She is willing to risk her lives for the sakes' of others and stands tall even when she is near death.

**Ninja Academy Report: **A close-combat fighter, well-developed taijutsu and stamina, exceptional strength, higher than average endurance level, Uchiha-exceptional chakra capacity, IQ of 180, higher than average in weapons, average chakra control, average Genjutsu but low Ninjutsu, has the potential of an assassin, unfortunately she is very short – I mean petite! She is also very good friends with Hinata and Shikamaru.

**Kekkei genkai: **The Raven pupils turn black and raven-like wings sprout from her back, increases running speed, agility, chakra reserves and endurance level and are able to enrapture a whole army in any undetectable Genjutsu the user chooses.

**History: **The Tsuki clan was a very prestigious bloodline of shinobi who were blessed with the Raven Eyes but was a dark clan, and each family member was assigned with a raven. Ravens were treated with absolute respect by every single Tsuki member and were often used in battles. The Raven Eyes first started when the head of the Tsuki clan helped saved a family of ravens from being killed by hunter-nins, and those ravens were unexpectedly the ones the gods summoned from the sky. The head of the Tsuki clan was granted with the Raven Eyes by one of the ravens as a reward, and was in return, the head worshipped all ravens. The Raven Eyes are blessed on every member as soon as they are born. The Tsuki clan was later killed by a Tsuki traitor except for Ren and her older brother Hiroto, four and five respectively. They were transported to a secret facility built by the Tsuki Elders by their mother, who went back to find more survivors but was killed.

**Name: **Tsuki, Hiroto

**Age: **13/14

**Appearance: **Spiky raven-coloured locks, blood-red slits, snowy-white skin, wears a black, short-sleeved shirt with one opened button, armguards, dark blue shorts with tight black pants underneath, bandages on both legs and his right arm, standard black ninja sandals, black fighting gloves and the Konoha headband tied around his right arm, wields a white katana called Yang.

**Personality: **Naturally friendly but sometimes dense, very protective of those dear to him, strong-willed, will fight to the death even if it kills him, brutally loyal and witty, but is easily provoked, sadistic and cruel to the people who harm his precious ones. He is also **very **protective over his younger sister.

**Ninja Academy Report: **A close-combat fighter, unrivalled taijutsu to the point he is on par with two low-level Jounins, average stamina and endurance level, very strong but slightly lower chakra capacity than Ren's and has the IQ of 190, a natural with weapons, better chakra control than his sister , average Ninjutsu and Genjutsu and has the talent of becoming a healer-ninja or a taijutsu specialist. He seems to have changed the old Neji, which I am very grateful for, though I sometimes worry the relationship those two have...

**Kekkei genkai: **The Raven pupils turn black and raven-like wings sprout from his back, increases running speed, agility, chakra reserves and endurance level and are able to enrapture a whole army in any undetectable Genjutsu the user chooses.

**History**: (See Ren's Profile)

**WARNING TO ALL READERS: THIS IS A REMAKE OF NARUTO, THOUGH SOME PARTS WILL STILL BE STAYING THE SAME. AND MY CHARACTER IS REASONABLY SUE-ISH!**


	2. Enter! Kunoichi of the Ravens!

**Disclaimer**: Naruto and pretty much everyone in it belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I only own my OCs.

**Chapter One:** Enter! Kunoichi of the Ravens!

"Ren-chan, wake up."

Ren blatantly ignored her brother's painful pokes and rolled over to the other side of her bed. "Okay then, time for Plan B," he sighed in defeat. Ren felt surprised as she heard him walk away. Her heart quickened when he came back as she heard a sloshing noise.

Hiroto tipped his bucket of icy cold water over Ren, she leapt out of bed, shivering from the water and glared at her brother, as payback, she launched one hell of a punch at him. He was thrown off and slammed against the concrete wall, which was ready to collapse from all the hitting Ren did in the morning. Ren squeezed the water out of her bangs and yelled, "What the hell was that for?"

Hiroto peeled himself off the wall, not a single bit harmed as he had applied a layer of chakra over his skin to sustain the pain, "You wouldn't wake up after I poked you for five minutes so I just did my own job," Hiroto shrugged his shoulders but replaced his blank look with a broad grin, "You'd better get ready, my rookie genin little sister." Ren lightly punched him on the shoulder and shooed him away so she could change. She cleansed herself with warm water and changed into her normal clothes, whipping out Ying from her bedside and equipping it on her back, wore her favourite gloves, slipped a pouch over her waist, containing some burn cream, healing herbs just in case she overdid it with training, a fresh roll of bandages and kunais and shurikens placed separately, carefully unwrapped the bandages over her left leg and checked on her scars before wrapping them in new bandages.

Last but not least, she snatched her Konoha headband from her bookshelf and tied it proudly around her neck for two reasons, one, it looked good, two; she wanted to hide a scar on her neck.

She exited her room and jumped off the banisters, landing smoothly on the fresh cedar floor and walking towards the breakfast table, taking in every single detail of the new, beautiful Tsuki Compound.

When the anonymous Tsuki traitor assassinated all their family members, he burnt down the Tsuki Compound before the two siblings could reach it. The Third Hokage ordered it to be rebuilt so Hiroto and Ren had to stay in an apartment for a few months before returning to their blissfully new home, which was much lighter and happier from the gloomy and dark raven-worshipping compound they once feared, thank god they were too young to have ravens for partners since it would haunt them of the Assassination of the Tsuki Clan.

She found a basket of her favourite garlic bread on the table, along with a two mugs of hot cocoa and two apples Hiroto was sitting on the counter munching on his apple with two pieces of garlic bread sitting on his lap. "Smells good," Ren commented, taking a huge bite of bread, gulped down her cocoa and snatched an apple, tucking it inside her pouch. "Wish me luck," Hiroto grinned, "I've got a B-rank mission today."

Ren choked on her bread and needed to be patted on the back. She couldn't believe her brother, a genin, would be taking up a B-rank mission solely reserved for chuunin and jounin, she was highly impressed, since this was only his second year being a genin.

"Good luck," Ren abruptly left the compound, waving her brother good-bye as she sped as fast as she could go towards Ninja Academy. She entered the classroom and found it was empty, great, she thought, I'd be alone.

She walked towards her seat beside Uchiha Sasuke, who was glaring at the board for no reason at all, and didn't even bat an eyelash when she slipped beside him. She practically ignored him all the time anyway, and was hardly offended by his lack of social skills. _Heck, that's rich coming from me_, Ren mentally grinned at the thought. Sasuke glanced at Ren for a few moments, Ren refused to flinch, even if he was staring very, very intently at her.

"What?" Ren asked, annoyed.

"Hn," Sasuke replied, "You're from _that _Tsuki clan, right?"

"Is there any other?" Ren smirked slightly, "And you're from _that _Uchiha clan, right?" she asked mockingly.

"I can see it in your eyes; you're not looking for vengeance, even though the person who destroyed your family was one of you. Why?" Sasuke asked, highly intrigued. Ren's eyes darkened, he just reminded her of that terrible night. "For one thing," she started off, gritting her teeth, "I'm not the type of person who holds grudges, and I'm not freaking stupid enough to fight some joker whose skills rival the Lord Hokage's, anyway, if I start looking for revenge, I'll be just like that traitor, who was definitely hating the clan for some reason. Tell me, Uchiha, what are you going to do after you avenge your family? Nothing, probably, I don't doubt you won't feel satisfied, but how long are you going to be satisfied when an empty feeling will start to corrupt you? And knowing that your one-track mind for revenge has the probability of hurting those who cared for you, will you, or would you; have the courage to face them again?"

She blurted everything out, her anger, her dying feelings; every single detail she wanted to tell someone who had suffered the same fate as her. A lump hitched up her throat, "You have a bright future, and you'd be throwing it away just for revenge, what are you thinking?" Sasuke looked away, "I'm sorry for asking you that."

"Whatever," she regained her composure, "it's going to haunt me one day anyway when the old fool's going to realize that he hasn't killed the whole family yet."

Sasuke smirked from the shadows, "So you're waiting for him to come to you instead of you going to him?"

"I will make him feel the emotional pain he inflicted on me and my brother, I'm not trying to get revenge, but I'm not going to let the coward get away with it either," she told Sasuke.

"Nice chatting with you, Tsuki, you're not that bad as everyone complains about you," Ren had no idea whether it was a compliment or not, but then she wondered on the second part, "What complaints?"

Sasuke shrugged, "Most of the time it's those idiots Sakura, Ino and the fangirls who say you're evil and heartless and doesn't care a shit for anyone but Shikamaru, Kiba, Hinata, Naruto and Chouji back you up and shuts them up."

Ren raised an eyebrow and laughed self-consciously, "Ha, ha, I can fully imagine Kiba and Naruto doing that but Hinata seems too shy to talk, much less back someone up."

Sasuke looked at her oddly, like she was an idiot, which annoyed her, "Are you freaking serious? That lazy bastard and that eating bastard (Shikamaru & Chouji) treat you like their own sister, Kiba and dobe (idiot) Naruto adore you and Hinata practically worships you."

Ren was absolutely shocked; she had always been acting so indifferent to pretty much everyone for the past couple of years, but she actually gained some true friends along the way. Maybe she did something for them that made her loved by them? The only thing she did to them was acknowledge Naruto's existence and hung out with him sometimes, made everyone shut up when they teased Chouji about his weight, helped Kiba find Akamaru when he was lost, played Shogi with Shikamaru when nobody wanted to since he always won and helped Hinata boost her confidence. She didn't think all of this highly mattered with the relationship she had with them. Her heart lifted, she suddenly felt so grateful to Shikamaru, Kiba, Naruto, Chouji and Hinata.

"So you're my friend now, Uchiha?" Ren gave a shy grin.

"Whatever; just don't start going fangirl on me," Sasuke replied without his usual heavy layer of coldness. Ren and Sasuke continued giving small talk and the rest of the class filed in, Shikamaru telling Naruto that the class was reserved only for the genin, and Naruto bragging in return. They stopped their small talk once Ino and Sakura barged in and arguing who got into the classroom first. "Oh fuck," Ren heard Sasuke mutter under his breath.

Naruto suddenly blushed but was pushed away by Sakura as she sped down the aisles, stopping at Ren's and Sasuke's. Sakura demanded, "Get out, Tsuki! I want to sit with Sasuke-kun!" _Oh god, Sakura, you just _had _to piss Tsuki-san off_, Ino thought pityingly.

Naruto and Kiba backed up from their seats; Chouji stopped munching on his chips and Shikamaru and Hinata tensed up, as well as anybody else who knew the meaning of killer intent.

"Shut the hell up, Haruno, before you get me mad," Ren threatened, hissing through her teeth.

Sakura's anger rose and an angered look was plastered on her face as she raised her fist and aimed at Ren. Naruto yelled, "Sakura-chan! Don't!"

There was no use in shouting as Ren caught it in the nick of time, calm and composedly without batting an eyelid, though her eyes darkened, awakening the Raven Eyes as her strength increased and she nearly crushed Sakura's fist effortlessly. But knowing better, she drew back her Raven Eyes, she would be the joke of Konoha if she beat a weakling like Sakura and having to use her kekkei genkai to boot. She released her grip and Sakura went tumbling over, scampering off to a seat. Hopefully, this experience would take her down a few pegs, Ren thought secretly.

"Thanks," Sasuke muttered.

Ren had no time to answer as Iruka walked into the room, strangely, on crutches. Iruka glanced around, surprised at the tense silence.

He started his speech and started calling out the teams. "Team 7 – Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura..." Naruto cheered, Sakura slumped on her seat, depressed.

"– and Uchiha Sasuke," Sakura cheered, Naruto in turn became depressed. Naruto demanded, "Iruka-sensei! Why is a marvellous ninja like me stuck with a loser like Sasuke!"

"Well Naruto, Sasuke had the highest marks in the class, while you were dead last," Iruka said. A babble of laughter broke the tense atmosphere, making Naruto pissed.

_Okay, Naru and Uchiha are out...I don't mind being with Hina or Shika._

Iruka rattled on to Teams 8, 9 and 10. Ren was genuinely surprised that her name had not been called. "Since there is an unequal amount of passes, it is decided that this year's top female rookie, Tsuki Ren, will join another group of shinobi out of this class."

There were some mutterings, Sasuke looked at me and smirked, "Don't die, Tsuki."

"Thanks," Ren replied, feeling agitated at the unwanted attention. The bell rang and Iruka dismissed them. "Ren, stay here to meet your team," Iruka called out to her, Ren nodded and let Sasuke pass.

Kiba, Naruto, Hinata, Shikamaru and Chouji came over; Kiba and Naruto were crying anime tears, Shikamaru was patting her shoulder and inviting her to play Shogi with him later, Chouji gave her the last chip in his bag, which must have been a sacrifice for him, Hinata hugged her and wished her warmly. Surprisingly, Ren didn't brush her off and hugged her back. She watched as the people she listed as precious people who she would protect walked away.

Suddenly, a poof of smoke filled the classroom, Ren and Iruka choking from inhaling some of it.

There was a third and fourth pair of choking voices as the smoke dissasipated quickly, revealing a pair of ninja.

They were both guys, _hot _guys. Ren found herself blushing pink as she met the eyes of a golden-blonde haired boy with gorgeous forest green eyes with the Konoha headband on his forehead; he was wearing a collared bloody red jacket and an expensive-looking choker around his neck, the shape of a Rosario. He wore brown shorts with bandages wrapped around both legs and standard ninja sandals, he had a kunai pouch on his leg and on his back was a beautiful black-edged katana.

The other guy was less welcoming, he had jet black hair that hung over his eyes and two slightly longer strands framing his face, his eyes were slits, similar to Ren's but were a ocean-blue colour, he wore a black jacket with a ragged dark blue shirt underneath, dark shorts and the standard ninja sandals, he was equipped with a belt with chains hanging off them and a kunai pouch below it, he had two crimson red katanas on his back. Both were slightly toned and muscled and more than a few inches taller than Ren, and both used katanas, she realized.

"Damn you, Kotarou, what freaking possessed you to use that jutsu when you didn't even complete it!" the dark-haired guy yelled at the blonde. The blonde sheepishly scratched his head.

Their attention was diverted to us when Iruka coughed, wanting their attention. "I suspect you two are Ren's new teammates?"

The blonde nodded and said to Ren in a very playboyish manner, "Nice to meet you, Ren-chan. I'm Hideki Kotarou." Kotarou kissed her fingers until Ren whisked them away in embarrassment.

"Natsume," Natsume introduced himself coldly.

"Tsuki Ren," Ren replied equally coldly.

"Alright, Ren, you can go off now," Iruka said. Ren nodded and left with her teammates side by side. They were completely silent as they waited in one of the classrooms for their teacher to arrive.

They sat down, Natsume sitting near the window in the far back, Ren in the second row whilst Kotarou sat beside her. The silence was quite calming, but the silence grew to be more awkward that Ren _had _to start a conversation.

"Iruka-sensei said that I'll be teaming up with shinobi outside the class, does that mean you guys aren't from Konohagakure?" Ren asked.

"Yeah, I and Natsume-kun used to be citizens from Kusagakure but we went to Kumogakure when the war started in Kusa, we returned back when we heard it was rebuilt and decided to enrol in their ninja academy, we ended up in the top of the class. We were scouted by Konoha themselves to form a new team as an experiment. We agreed since we originally didn't enjoy staying there. Natsume-kun is still sulky for no reason though." Kotarou whispered the last part in my ear.

"Humour me; he's always like this, isn't he?" Ren questioned.

"Not really," Kotarou's cheerful demeanour subsided, his face slightly sad, "Something happened to him a few years back. I'm not really in the position to tell you."

Ren nodded, understanding Kotarou's reasoning. "Gotcha," Ren folded her arms across her chest and gazed at the door, which just opened, startling Kotarou and Natsume.

In her view was a tall, broad-shouldered man with startling green hair covering the left side of his face and catlike red eyes that twinkled under the brightness of the classroom, he was wearing the normal jounin/chuunin vest with a full-length dark grey suit and a kunai pouch on his right leg. He had a twisted smile etched on his face that made the three slightly uncomfortable.

"Yo, this is Team 15, right?" the man asked. "Hai, sensei," Kotarou answered.

"Good, you three meet me at the forest." The jounin disappeared into smoke.

The three watched, agape, the only comment was given by Kotarou, which was: "So cool, I wanna do that."

"Besides that, which part of the forest does he want us to meet?" Ren asked, annoyed but coolly. She was taken by surprise when Natsume said, "Chill. I've got it covered."

Ren twisted her neck slightly to see Natsume making a handsign. He concentrated, his eyes shut. After a few moments, he opened them again. "I found it, follow me," he ordered.

He leapt from his seat, landing gracefully like a cat in front of the classroom. Seeing that there was no choice, Ren followed him, Kotarou not far behind her as Natsume started off running, chakra infused in his feet. Ren and Kotarou did the same, easily keeping pace with Natsume.

While they were reaching the forest, Ren asked Natsume, "What did you mean when you found 'it'?"

Natsume explained; spiky strands whipping across his face, "I sensed his chakra. When he disappeared, he left a chakra trail so I was able to track him down into the forest."

Natsume explained further, "No specific name so far. It's only that I and my sister are extremely sensitive to chakra; both of us have the Mind's Eye of the Kagura. We can track specific individuals through chakra by using my standard concentration pose for moulding chakra, pick up chakra from long distances, notice changes in an individual's chakra, sense if a group is approaching and identify if they are animals and whatsoever as well as how many there are. We can also find out if an enemy is lying or using a clone jutsu or indicating if someone, including ourselves, is under Genjutsu. There's also one more technique we can use..." (Sources: Narutopedia)

Natsume's expression was slightly tense, "We can heal others by letting them bite us and suck on our chakra. We can only do this once a day." Natsume pulled up his jacket sleeve, revealing seven bite marks. Ren's eyes widened as she dodged a tree in the way.

"They're horrendous, I know, but I can't complain since my sister probably has more of these."

Ren's gaze on him softened, not out of pity, but of the fond tone he used to talk about his sister. Ren decided not to ask about his sister's name to save him the sadness.

"Oh, we're here," Natsume's tone changed from sad and caring back to cold and unfriendly. The clearing was large and the dirt on the ground was perfectly dry and hard and there were a few practice dummies stuck onto some poles and jammed onto the ground, a log was placed on the far end of the clearing. Haiku was right beside them and looked surprised.

"You guys are quick, not bad," Haiku noted.

"It's all thanks to Natsume," Ren said. Haiku's gaze inflicted on the stoic Natsume and nodded in approval, "The Mind's Eye of the Kagura?" Natsume didn't speak.

"Alright, let's start with introductions; take a seat on the log."

They followed suit, Natsume sitting on the far left, Kotarou in between and Ren beside him. Haiku walked towards them and said, "Ok, my name is Takumi Haiku and I'm a Jounin. I'm from Konohagakure. I don't like anything much. I hate scum who betray their comrades and people who complain about their lives without knowing true pain, no hobbies in particular, I'm not married and my objective is to make sure none of you die (Sweatdrop from all three genin)." He pointed to Natsume.

"You with the scowl," he said, Natsume growled but cooperated.

"I'm Natsume, Genin. I'm originally from Kusagakure, I like my sister, I dislike Iwagakure shinobi, my hobbies are training and playing the violin (_what the...he plays the fucking violin_, Ren thought, jaw-slacked, Kotarou laughing good-naturedly at her reaction), single with stupid fangirls, my objective is to find my sister."

He beckoned to Kotarou who didn't hesitate to talk, "My name is Hideki Kotarou, Genin. I used to be a shinobi from Kusagakure, I like my friends and Ren-chan (Ren blushed completely red and aimed a kick at the flamboyant playboy) and chokers, I basically don't hate anything besides the murderer of my clan, my hobbies are reading and sketching, I'm obviously single with annoying fangirls and my objective is to protect my comrades."

There were sweatdrops on Haiku's and Ren's head, typical pretty boy comments from two hot guys, "Okay, you with the ponytail."

Ren hesitated before saying, "My name is Tsuki Ren, Genin. I'm from Konohagakure, I like the people who are dear to me especially my brother, I hate to remember the assassination of my clan, my hobbies are training and spending time with my brother. Single with a few tolerable fanboys and my objective is to make sure that the traitor from my clan gets his punishment, but I'm not going to avenge him for my clan, instead, I'm bloody hell making sure that bastard comes after me."

The three guys stared at her in surprise and amazement at her unexpectedly colourful vocabulary. Haiku rubbed his temples with a sweatdrop, _Okay, I've got two pretty boys and a girl from _that _Tsuki clan, all of them seem to have considerable amounts of chakra, exceptional IQ levels and otherwise pretty bad pasts...I've got my work cut out for me..._

"Alright, be here by five for your test and bring all the equipment you need," Haiku announced. They yelled, "FOUR!"

"What test?" Kotarou asked.

The three flinched when Haikuthrew his head back and cackled, "You see...only 9 graduates are able to make it to genin – of course since there is one extra cell, the rate has increased to 12 – the failures will have to go back to the academy."

Haiku expected them to yell in horror, to his surprise, they were discussing very calmly about it.

Ren: Good luck you guys.

Natsume: Whatever.

Kotarou: Hm...do you think we'll be able to use our swords?

Ren: As long as I have my kekkei genkai I hardly doubt I won't fail.

Natsume/Kotarou: We definitely want to see it.

Ren: (Sweatdrop) cut out that creepy unison thing.

Natsume/Kotarou: We're not doing it on purpose.

Ren: Ok, I'm already freaked out.

"HEY ARE YOU GUYS LISTENING TO ME!" Haiku shouted at them.

"Yes we are," Ren, Natsume and Kotarou said bluntly in unison.

_-_-lll, someone shoot me now..._Haiku thought.

"Alright, all of you are dismissed!" Haiku disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the three alone. As soon as Natsume confirmed that he left, Kotarou glomped Ren.

"Ren-chaaaan ~, can we go to your house?" Kotarou activated his pretty boy face and pleaded.

Ren blushed entirely red and yelled, "OK! OK! LET GO OF ME, DAMN YOU KOTAROU!"

Kotarou was completely immersed in pressing his soft cheek on hers, and to her surprise, ears popped out of his head out of nowhere. "You have neko (cat) ears!" Ren yelled; mouth agape.

Natsume explained, "Kotarou is from the Hideki clan, his kekkei genkai is total neko transformation. He can turn into leopards, jaguars, street cats and what the shit. First stage, mini-cat transformation which only actually happens when he is either provoked or sexually aroused (Ren blushed red, very, very red), ears and tail, second transformation is full-body transformation, increase sense of smell, speed and near immunity to dying from heights, he can die to about 9 times, same for a cat's."

"Do me a favour, Natsume, get OUR FUCKING TEAMMATE OFF OF ME!" Natsume rubbed Kotarou's ear gently. "Nya," Kotarou had this kitty face on and was mewing for all it was worth as he slowly got off Ren and disturbingly sat in a catlike position and rubbed up to Natsume's leg. "How – nya – mean – mew – of you, Natsu – mew," Kotarou moaned, Ren was blushing and thinking dirty thoughts at the yaoi that explicitly unfolded in front of her. Natsume pointed to Kotarou's ear, "His weak spot. Rub it a little and he becomes like this."

"What the hell? Do you guys do this all the time!" Ren wanted to vomit somewhere, somewhere far away from the yaoi. "No," Kotarou and Natsume said.

Natsume stopped rubbing and Kotarou sighed in relief and collapsed headfast, the tail and ears disappearing. Kotarou explained, "When I become like this Natsume has to stop me, he's the only one because he knows where to touch best." A tint of pink appeared in Natsume's cheeks, Ren just stared in disbelief at them. _I'll never look at two boys the same again..._

Ren shook her thoughts as she led her teammates out of the forest to Ichiraku Ramen. "My treat," Ren said as they took their seats.

Ren glanced around the restaurant and her eyes lay on three very familiar people.

A blonde looked up (Naruto) and shouted excitedly, "Hey, Ren-chan!"

He immediately glomped Ren, Ren affectionately patted his head as he cried anime tears and hugged her tighter, two people, obviously Sasuke and Sakura, looked up. Sakura shrieked in fear and attempted to cower behind Sasuke, who gave Ren a nod, raising his eyebrows at the two guys beside her. Suddenly, Ren felt two glares burning behind her head, aiming at the overdoing it blonde.

Natsume flicked Naruto's forehead, sending Naruto crashing towards Sasuke, who moved away in time, hitting the wall. Naruto recovered quickly, Sasuke and Sakura sent surprised looks to Natsume, who had a dark aura surrounding him; he hissed harshly, "What do you think you're doing?"

Naruto leapt up, he was now face-to-chin with Natsume. "Hugging my best friend, that's what! What's your problem, teme?" Naruto yelled. Ren flushed at that comment.

Taking charge, Sasuke slid in between them, interfering with their glaring contest. "Shut the fuck up, you two, what the hell's your problem?" Sasuke glared eye-to-eye with Natsume.

Ren quickly explained, fearing for Sasuke's and Natsume's safety.

"This is my teammate, Natsume, and my other teammate is Hideki Kotarou (Kotarou stood up and walked towards them for Natsume's defence), please meet the blonde, Uzumaki Naruto, the dark-haired one Uchiha Sasuke and the pinkie over there Haruno Sakura."

"Nice to meet you," Kotarou said cheerfully.

Naruto's mood changed as he waved to Kotarou, "Yo! At least you're nicer than this guy here!"

Sasuke and Natsume turned to him, thinking whether it referred to either one of them. Ren glanced at Sakura, looking lovey-dovey-eyed at Natsume, whose looks resembled slightly of Sasuke's.

"We're going to Ren-chan's house," Kotarou stated their business.

"Hey! Can I come along?" Naruto asked excitedly. Ren replied with a, "Sure. Uchiha and Haruno, you can come along if you want."

Sasuke shrugged, indicating that it was a 'yes', Sakura immediately agreed even though she was still scared shitless of Ren. They ordered their ramen. Naruto, Kotarou and Ren had miso, Sasuke had chicken and Sakura and Natsume ordered charshu ramen.

After they finished (Naruto finishing five bowls before either of them could finish their one), they walked towards the direction of Ren's house, Natsume beside Ren, Ren beside Kotarou, who was talking with Naruto, with Sasuke and Sakura beside him. Ren decided that Natsume was still wary of the three other genin.

They came up to the Tsuki Compound, Natsume's eyes were staring at it widely, Kotarou looked highly impressed, Naruto was exclaiming and shouting how cool it was, Sasuke just 'Hn'ned and Sakura agreed with everything he said.

Opening the door, all six genin walked in, admiring the order of the house, how magnificent and tidy and welcoming it was. Ren let them wander about, Sakura deciding to stick smack dab by Sasuke's side as Naruto looked around the kitchen for some ramen.

Natsume, Kotarou and unexpectedly Sasuke had apparently tried to sneak into Ren's room, but Ren stopped them with killer intent and they quietly went to the living room, which was as expected – huge.

There was a 1 to 2 meter tall television, three coffee tables, around 7 pretty big sofas with pull-out beds underneath, gorgeous chandeliers and etcetera. Sasuke found a see-through cabinet with rows of CDs inside. He opened it and took one out. He flinched when he saw the cover and the back of it. Sakura leaned over and looked faint at the sight of it. Natsume and Kotarou, wanting to know what was going on, looked over. Natsume glared at it with disgust, Kotarou looked like he could hurl right there and now.

Meanwhile, Ren was making some snacks for her guests with Naruto helping. Though, anyone with a sane mind would never let Naruto step into a kitchen.

It went pretty smoothly, with minor accidents like Naruto toppling over some unbreakable glass jars and using his Kage Bunshin (Shadow Doppelganger) to speed up the process of the tea-making and the cookies, which officially made Ren think about a new rule for no jutsus in the kitchen. In the end, she was fully relieved to get out of there alive carrying her treats.

She decided on jasmine tea and some smooth and crunchy chocolate-chip cookies, the only things she could make that were EXCEPTIONALLY EDIBLE. Naruto jogged beside her as they entered the living room and finding their teammates face-palming over one of her brother's horror CDs.

She calmly laid the tray down the table and snatched the CD out of Sasuke's grip. Sasuke complained, "Why the heck do you have PG-18 horror CDs?"

"They're not mine; they're Hiro-nii's. Jeez, it's not really that scary," Ren said. Naruto cheered, "Of course! I won't get scared by that dumb movie! Dattebayo!"

Suddenly, a light bulb flickered in Ren's head as she announced, "You know, why don't you guys stay over? We have guest rooms so you can stay and we can spend the night watching the movies."

"I'm fine with it," Sasuke said coolly, not wanting to be outmatched with the dead last knucklehead ninja.

"Whatever," Natsume said.

"Uh...ok?" Kotarou said hesitantly.

"We can't, I and Sasuke-kun have a test tomorrow," Sakura protested.

"Oh," Ren looked crestfallen. The mood changed a little when Sasuke announced, "We can meet up on Friday after missions and we can ask out Team 8 and 10 to join in this (they WILL pass of course, Team 8 and 10's battle strength was above normal genins'). All of us can stay until Sunday."

"That'll be awesome!" Naruto said, liking the very idea. "We can use the pull-out beds and mattresses and we have lots of extra blankets," Ren said, agreeing with finality.

Ren felt warm all over, she knew all four of them would come and Sakura would go wherever Sasuke went. Shikamaru wouldn't be all for it to go, but with a little Shogi, he wouldn't mind. She made sure she had extra snacks, and prayed that Kiba and Hinata would come, as well as Shino and Ino. But she wouldn't tell Hinata that Naruto would be coming and made a note to prepare a bed for Akamaru.

All of them sat around on the sofas, Naruto and Ren on the armrests, Kotarou sitting beside Sakura, who was sitting next to Sasuke, and Natsume standing behind Kotarou, chattering on the events they would prepare for the particular night. Naruto wanted to have ramen, Sakura decided for a girls' session for she, Ino, Hinata and Ren only, Ren surprised that she included her in, Sasuke wanted a few horror movies for everyone to watch, Kotarou wanted to make sure that there were private bathrooms and Natsume, giving up on being cold, said that it would be cool for the guys to have their session as well.

Soon, the cookies and the tea were devoured (Sasuke and Naruto winced when they tried the cookies, Kotarou threw up in a dustbin whilst drinking his tea, Sakura turned green after taking the cookies AND the tea at the same time and Natsume just spat his food out of the window) and everybody left one by one at somewhat middle of the afternoon, first Sasuke, then Sakura and Naruto. Kotarou bid Ren good-bye as he left as well; it was just Natsume and Ren alone. Natsume was slowly drinking his tea and Ren was busy looking for something to do. Ren decided to ask about Natsume's sister.

"Hey...Natsume," Ren started off, "Who's your sister?"

Natsume choked on his tea as he put his cup down on the coffee table carefully. "There's not much about her," Natsume said, "only that she looks completely different from me. She's got my mother's looks while I have my dad's. Her name's Karin."

"Oh," Ren looked down on her lap and thought if Hiroto was still living but out of her reach...would she end up the same way Natsume did? She couldn't believe that Natsume was still stable, she was, of course, but the thought of knowing that one of your closest family members was alive but you had no idea where to start finding them would make anyone insane.

Natsume stood up abruptly and walked towards the entrance, Ren followed him and led him out, the silence was pretty tense until Natsume looked over his shoulder and met Ren's eyes; electricity met water, complete opposites. "I consider you my comrade since Kotarou trusts you," Natsume finally said.

Ren nodded in acknowledgement as Natsume walked away from the Compound, the air seeming to follow him.

Ren shut the door and felt her whole face burn, literally. She went to the washroom and cleansed herself before leaping out of her bedroom window to meet with Shikamaru. She focused the chakra on her feet as she sped towards Shikamaru's house, deftly landing on the grass where she found Shikamaru lying in front of her. "Yo," Shikamaru gave a nonchalant wave, removing his arm that was blocking the light that was entering his half-opened eyelids. "Yo, Shika," Ren said, lying beside him. They lay there staring at the clouds in peace, feeling relaxed and calm.

"Let's go play Shogi," Shikamaru proposed.

Ren agreed as they went to the patio (?) and Shikamaru set up a Shogi set as they started playing with Shikamaru almost winning, Ren asked, "Hey, do you want to come to my house on Friday? My team, Team 15, Team 7 and hopefully Team 8 will be joining for the sleepover, and...I don't mind if Ino comes."

"Don't worry," Shikamaru said lazily, as he knocked off Ren's black knight, "Ino respects you better after you gave Sakura the punishment she needs. I'll go ask her and Chouji and if we meet Kiba's we'll ask them."

"So you'll come?" Ren asked, "There'll be horror movies so I don't think you'll sleep well after watching."

"Meh, I'll just sleep through it." Ren sweatdropped, typical Shikamaru answer, "But I'll come, that's for sure." Before she knew it, Shikamaru won. "Oh crap," Ren cursed.

"Heh, heh, looks like you've got to do me a favour," Shikamaru smirked (in his lazy manner, of course). Ren sighed in regret but was actually a little excited that one of her best friends was going to join in her sleepover, "What is it?"

Shikamaru suddenly looked serious, his eyes turning slightly dark as he stood up and moved slowly towards her. Ren suddenly became nervous and fidgeted, wanting whatever Shikamaru wanted to do to her to end. He knelt down in front of her, his face just a few inches away from hers. "Meh, I've always wanted to try this _and_ to prove to Ino that I _am_ man enough to do this so..." Ren's face heated up as he pressed his lips against her cheek and pulled back almost instantly. She could feel herself touching the place where Shikamaru kissed her and her thumping heartbeat. "...Shika?"

Shikamaru turned his back to her, but she knew that he was blushing almost as much as her, "Sorry. Don't hold a grudge on me or anything..." he was unexpectedly cut off by the blushing brunette.

"It's alright, Shika," Ren said calmly, standing up and grinning, wiping away the blush from her face, "I kinda liked it. See you soon."

She started to leave, butterflies invading her stomach as she could almost sense Shikamaru stopping in his tracks to tell her something but left it at that. She was actually pretty impressed that Shikamaru had the guts to do something like this. Well, well, well, her friend was maturing quite quickly.

She ran as fast as she could, out of sight from the Nara Compound and settled down comfortably on the grass, watching the clouds pass by, forming into shapes like circles and cats...which made Ren nosebleed at the thought of Natsume doing 'that' to Kotarou again.

After a couple of minutes, the sun began to set and she decided to go home, only to buck up when a kunai whisked across her face. She dodged it in a hurry, which left a scratch on her right cheek. Wincing, she wiped off the blood and went into the normal Academy stance.

"Who's there?" she demanded.

She faced towards the trees, where a particularly attractive boy stood on a branch with confidence that 'hell he would not fall'. His eyes were lavender, like Hinata's, and he had gorgeous long hair which irked Ren. He jumped off the branch and landed with a soft thud on the grass beside her.

"You do know you are on my training grounds?" he asked with seriousness. "Sorry," Ren apologized half-heartedly. She relaxed, spotting the Konoha hitai-ate on the boy's forehead.

They glared at each other for awhile. Neji tilted his head slightly and widened his eyes once he recognized her, "You are the top female rookie Tsuki Ren, am I correct?"

"Y-You could say that," Ren said uncertainly, _not _liking where this was going. The boy's frown was replaced by a smirk and took out his hand for a shake, "My name is Hyuuga Neji from the Hyuuga Clan."

_Oh, so _this _is the famous protégé of the Hyuuga, _Ren thought, her stare still fixated on Neji's. "I am your brother Hiroto's friend," he added quickly, "we spar a lot as well."

"Oh! So _you're _the guy Hiro-nii talks about!" Ren cried, recognizing the cocky, arrogant face that always 'clung' onto her brother. "This is the first time we've personally met," Neji admitted, "you always hid when your brother brought visitors home."

"Eh, heh, heh," she blushed pink as she slumped onto the grass after standing for so long, Neji sat beside her, his eyes kind and warm, the ones Hiroto had. "He changed me," he said quietly, making Ren perk up. "He was a failure like my teammate Lee, and I always looked at him in disdain, thinking that once a failure was always a failure."

"He grew stronger, always fighting and always smiling even though I still defeated him over and over again," his breathing was brittle as he continued, "one day, he defeated me and told me that if a failure could change his fate, a genius like me could as well." (A/N: I'm making Hiroto a little like Naruto) Neji's face looked stoic as he continued, "I swore never to talk about destiny again and to underestimate failures. But I myself am unable to change my own fate because of the Branch Family's curse."

His gaze hardened and trying to be helpful, Ren stroked his hand gently as a friendly gesture and his cheeks tinged with pink. Ren could not help giggle at his cuteness. "As you know, Lady Hinata is from the Main Family and will become the leader of the Hyuuga Clan when she grows up. The Main Family put the curse mark: Caged Bird on every single one of the Branch Family members. We were sworn to the Main Family to act as their barrier and their servants. We will never be set free."

"My father, Hizashi, being the younger brother to Lord Hiashi, suffered the same fate and the Main Family decided to sacrifice him to take Lord Hiashi's place when the shinobi of another country decided war against Konoha because they kidnapped Hinata-sama, Hinata-sama's captors being one, their leader. From this day on, my grudge against the Main Family still stands," he finished.

After his story, Ren mentally felt sorry for him but thought it was unfair for him to dislike the Main Family, where Hinata was not the one responsible for Neji's father's death. It was certain that despite him being her brother's friend, she would not invite him to her sleepover for security reasons surrounding Hinata.

"I'm sorry," Ren said, "but you should know, Hina is not to blame for your father's death. If you really want to pinpoint the blame on someone, do it other than the members not involved in the sacrifice of Hizashi."

None of them saying another word, both immediately parted to different directions. _My first day as an unaccomplished Genin and it's been so eventful_, Ren thought as she changed into her pyjamas and fixed up her scratch before heading off to bed.

_**A/N: I'm really sorry there aren't any fighting scenes...I'm pretty terrible at them and I'm normally focused on the romance and the arcs -_-. Yes, Neji has changed but still holds a grudge and an urge to kill pretty much anyone in the Main Family and Shikamaru apparently finds Ren 'non-troublesome'. P.S. PLEASE FORGIVE ME FOR PLACING NATSUME AS KARIN'S BROTHER AND MAKING SASUKE AND INO OOC! IT'S JUST FOR THE SAKE OF THE STORY! Anyway, please Rate and Review! :D**_


	3. Test Start! Operation Genjutsu Escape!

**Disclaimer: **Naruto and pretty much everyone in it belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I only own my OCs.

**Chapter Two: **Test Start! Operation Genjutsu Escape!

The morning started off, unexpectedly, with a groggy Ren walking down the stairs, only to be stopped by a 'squishing' sound. _Huh? Since when did floors go 'squish'...? _She glanced down, and to her horror, she had accidentally stepped on her beloved brother and he was groaning in pain but seemed unharmed otherwise.

As a suitable punishment for waking her up the way he did the morning before, she focused all the chakra she could muster on her feet and gave Hiroto's head ONE GOOD KICK. Before the poor boy knew it, he was woken up and thrown fifty feet against the concrete wall (with one huge bump on his head). "Itai!" he yelled at his sister, who was grinning smugly at him, "Had a nice mission, dear brother?"

Rubbing his head soothingly, Hiroto answered, "Not funny, Ren-chan! That seriously hurt!" he faked pseudo tears though Ren quickly ignored him and started frying some eggs in a pan. He stopped crying and stood up abruptly, looking over Ren's 'food'.

He had paled considering at the mess Ren made of her eggs. There was a REASON why HE cooked for the two of them. One, the last time _Ren _tried to cook something that wasn't tea or cookies was when she was ten and she basically blew up the whole kitchen, the second time was when Hiroto was off for a two-day mission and she got herself sick by trying to be conservative and cooking her own food. _Never again_, he thought, shuddering.

Ren glanced at her watch and gasped, "Crap! I'm late for my training!" fate must have been smiling on Hiroto that day because she dumped her cooking aside and dashed upstairs and came down with her sword, her pouch filled with her necessary healing materials and weapons, attaching an extra kunai pouch and shuriken holder on each of her legs.

_Wow, training at four, her teacher's harsh_, Hiroto thought.

"Who's your sensei?" Hiroto asked curiously as he tossed her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich he quickly fixed up. Catching it instinctively, she answered, "Takumi Haiku."

If possibly, Hiroto choked on his own saliva after hearing that name. That particular sensei was rumoured to be even more of a sadist than Morino Ibiki and Mitarashi Anko, Head of Konoha Black Ops Torture and Interrogation Corps Unit Leader and Special Jounin respectively. As far as he heard from his own sensei, Haiku had never passed a single cell. He crushed all of his students with rock-hard tests. Worse was, they changed every year.

_But maybe_, he glanced edgewise at his sister, _Ren-chan hones her skills everyday so she doesn't get too lax...just maybe...she can pass? _The thought seemed to waver in his mind; he especially didn't want_ Ren _of all people to get hurt by a sadistic bastard.

"See you, Hiro-nii!" Ren called as she left the house instantly after Hiroto decided to tell her to 'stay safe'. He sweatdropped as she left a dust trail behind her.

Somewhere In the Forest

_Ugh, I can't take this, _Natsume sighed mentally. He quickly glanced at his close friend again in his partial neko form and blushed slightly as he snored quietly, his ears twitching every few seconds. Natsume cursed his friend's bishounen looks and introducing him to yaoi manga, which had unfortunately gotten Natsume addicted.

Though something was hindering in his heart, having been alone with only Kotarou as his company, he always thought about him. His laughing face, his smile, and his bright eyes that shone of spirit. But now, his thoughts suddenly became occasionally fixated on the raven-haired Tsuki heiress.

Her eyes that attempted to hide the pain she had suffered from her tragic past, the fake act of being indifferent; always putting on a tough face...she was similar to Natsume in some ways, who suffered the similar fate as her. _No, no_, he thought, determined, _I have to find my sister. I can't concern myself with love. _What a dense idiot, no?

There was a rustling from the bushes, and Kotarou and Natsume immediately went into alert mode. A figure appeared from the bushes. The intruder was apparently was a dishevelled Ren, making her way to their training spot. "Ohayo (good morning)," she said, suppressing a yawn.

Kotarou made no attempt to hide his internal noises, "Why do I feel like killing Haiku-sensei for making us wake up so early?"

"The feeling is mutual," Ren and Natsume said in unison, much to their surprise. Tick marks appeared on their temples.

Ren's Thoughts

_If he's one second late..._

Natsume's Thoughts

_I'll have the pleasure..._

Kotarou's Thoughts

_...Of slicing him with my beautiful katana!_

In the end, (sigh) all three of them had the same intention to kill the sadist Haiku, but who on EARTH could have known they weren't morning people?

"Yo!" an irritatingly familiar voice was heard from the backs of the three genin. They immediately swerved around and unsheathed their katanas from their backs, the blade of their katanas pointed at the annoying jounin's neck. "Ah, uh," the jounin waved his hands nervously, beckoning them to stand down. The three were still mad but lowered their weapons.

"At least I know one of your talents," he gave off his sly grin, which sent shivers to the trio's spines. "Alright, listen up! This is my test: I will put all of you under Genjutsu and your task is to escape together as a team, use release and all three of you fail. Got it?"

Feeling the killing intent rolling off the scary jounin, they nodded out of fear. "And also," Haiku looked at Ren, "You are not allowed to use Raven Eyes since it revolves around Genjutsu. And no," his gaze diverted to Kotarou and Natsume, "No use of katanas will be allowed, you will not be using them anyway."

Haiku looked at every genin in turn with their determined faces. _They aren't even fazed; I've got a good batch this year_. "All of you just relax." He made a hand seal and concentrated on making a very terrifying Genjutsu for his three students to experience.

_I will be highly impressed if all three of them are still able to fight after what I will show them...after all, _Haiku mentally cackled_, what I really am showing them is their deepest, darkest memories from the past...this test isn't actually meant to find ways to escape my Genjutsu... _

Under Haiku's Genjutsu

_Oh god, _Ren cursed as she looked at her surroundings. Everything seemed gloomy and distorted. Buildings were torn down or just partially destroyed, the sky was an unsettling colour of blood and the sight of cawing ravens perching on the landlines just scared her. It looked like someone had done a good one on Konoha.

She scanned around for her teammates. Unfortunately for her, they were nowhere to be found. All she could see was a barren sidewalk, _just _a barren sidewalk right in front of her, how strange. But as soon as realization dawned on her, the buildings started to fade and the skies started to disappear. The sidewalk darkened into pure black and her surroundings had officially turned an emotionless shade of white. There was simply nothing else to follow but the sidewalk. _So that's why Haiku-sensei said that we must escape together as a team_, she thought as she merely stared at the dark path in front of her, _Kotarou and Natsume must be there at the end of the road. _

She started walking to her undetermined fate.

To Natsume's Perspective

_Shit_, Natsume thought, as he focused slightly more and more chakra into his feet to increase the speed of finding his teammates and discussing the way out, but the path seemed endless, and he felt his knees weaken as he wasted his precious chakra.

He looked forward again once more and widened his eyes. Colour started flooding back to his surroundings as his voice trembled, "N-No..." the scene unfolded before him. The bloody sky and the torn buildings...shinobi from Iwagakure destroying everything in their path...shurikens and kunais flying about, and Natsume was watching it with his own eyes. He could feel himself shrinking and looked at himself with horror; he had blood on his hands, whose blood? He forced himself to remember. Suddenly, a kunai shot out of nowhere and he tried to dodge but cut his cheek instead.

"Natsu-chan!" yelled a familiar voice to Natsume's ears. Natsume turned around as he backed himself against the wall, wounds etched all over his body, clutching the cut in pain. A memorable face stood before him in her cracked glasses and flaming red hair – his beloved sister Karin. "K-Karin..." he croaked as she knelt in front of him and tore out the sleeve of her shirt and dabbed it delicately on Natsume's cheek.

Natsume cried in pain, much to his surprise. Why, _why _was he feeling this much pain from this normal cut? He was a shinobi! He had _learnt _how to erase pains like this!

_No_, he thought darkly as he continued crying, tears pouring down his cheeks, _this is me from the past. I wasn't a shinobi yet. _

"Hurry, Karin!" Natsume ordered, trying to regain his former strength back. He grabbed her wrist from his cheek and pulled her with him. She nodded; scared as he led her past the homes, dodging the weapons thrown by the shinobi and trying to lower down their panicked footsteps. He recalled them playing in the playground earlier when the war commenced. An exploding tag was placed on the swings and got set off almost immediately. Karin had safely gotten out in time but Natsume received the brunt of it.

Karin accidentally fell down, yelping with a "Kya!" so Natsume had to pick her up and carry her, only noticing that the person she had fell over was undoubtedly, a friend of their mother's, Yui Misako. Karin gasped, "M-Misako-san?"

Natsume shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts of the dead body of Yui and focus on running whilst thinking the true meaning of the test.

_Haiku-sensei is showing us the past...but the tragic part of it, _he thought of everything that was happening now, _but why? Didn't he say that we were only supposed to meet up and find away to escape his Genjutsu...?_

His stomach lurched forward. Hell _no_, he had figured out the true objective of the test, and there was no way in hell he would possibly be able to do it alone, Kotarou and Ren had the guts, but they would be screwed if they didn't find out soon. He stared at Yui's dead body to Karin's crying face. He was here and alive right now. Even though it was Genjutsu, he had to protect his sister. He couldn't turn tail when a precious person's life was at stake.

Suddenly, he heard Karin scream like there was no tomorrow and looked up. His blood froze and his slits narrowed when an Iwagakure ninja stood before him, katanas in hand. "Sorry kids, but we're not leaving _anyone _alive," he said, as he raised the blade. Natsume glanced down for a moment – and lucky him – he found a kunai and snatched it.

"Karin! Go to our parents, now!" Natsume ordered.

"B-But Natsu-chan...!" Karin's voice trembled.

Natsume gave her a teary-eyed look to stay down and smiled, "This is all I can do for my imoto, please, I'll deal with this guy, don't worry, I will definitely be with you soon." Karin burst into tears and hugged her brother tightly. "Stay alive, Natsu-chan," she sobbed, as she turned her back to him and ran off, leaving Natsume with the deadly shinobi.

To Kotarou's Perspective

"M-Mama, P-Papa, I-Imoto...," Kotarou's voice wobbled as he caught sight of the Hideki Compound...only that it sounded empty and noiseless. He couldn't even catch a cat yowl or a single mew, which meant that something was very, very wrong.

_Why, why am I here? Why did Haiku-sensei send me _here_? _Kotarou thought in despair as he forced his chakra throughout his whole body to undergo his full body transformation. Ears and his tail popped out, nothing else. _What! _Kotarou freaked out as he looked around himself. He was in his younger form when the assassination happened. He had not been old enough to fully transform yet. Forgetting the earlier confusion, he immediately dashed on all fours towards the Compound, his breathing uneven and perspiration trickling down his forehead. The path to the Hideki Compound seemed endless.

He tried not to see the dead bodies of several of his relatives around him, tears pouring down his cheeks and wiping off the blood on his palms. He thought it was cruel of Haiku to make him and his friends go through this again, with no weapons or their ninja strength.

He leapt across the training grounds and stopped in his tracks when he saw bloody footprints from the stairs to the huge bronze entrance of the Compound. _Shit, I'm too late, _he swore as he barged past it with as much strength he could muster. What met his eyes was his worst nightmare.

His father, his mother, his dear baby sister, lying on the floor, clothes seeped with blood, stabbed in several places with kunais, being tortured slowly before they died, their killer standing over them, watching, smiling gleefully, but all Kotarou could think about was: _hate. _

He was a _coward_. Back when the real assassination happened, he had done nothing but cry as he stood behind the bronze entrance door, hoping that the assassin would not notice him, watching his precious family members die before him. Hell no, he wasn't going just stand there and do nothing!

His blood boiled new blood, something a prey would notice from its predator: bloodlust. He growled viciously, his voice resounding to every single room in the Compound. His tears disappeared and his chakra surrounded him as a protective barrier as his hands turned into claws and fangs appeared from his teeth; half-transformation, still weak, but usable. His thoughts were clouded with the lust to claw up the bastard murderer. Now he could release all the guilt from his heart all against the assassin. He leapt forward and launched himself on the stoic assassin.

The assassin, using only one fist, punched Kotarou in the gut, sending him flying towards the bronze door, leaving a Kotarou-sized dent on it, but Kotarou didn't care as he kept going, throwing himself at the murderer every single time, throwing up more and more blood, his internal organs getting crushed every time the assassin infused more and more chakra into his hand. This was a losing battle for Kotarou but he kept attacking again and again.

Strangely, he thought, he had never realized why the assassin didn't kill him right then and now. But just as he thought of those words, the killer's creepy smile widened as he raised his kunai and aimed it straight at Kotarou's heart. Kotarou was down; unable to move as the murderer crept forward, eyes bright red like fire, his tongue licking his lips tantalizingly. Kotarou seemed to have regained back his senses as he cowered in the corner, shivering in fear. The thought of this terrible projection of his past made him forget that this was all a Genjutsu. Watching those animalistic, wild eyes in front of him, he forced himself to stand, telling himself that he was strong.

Clutching his claws until they bled, he gave a roar that rocked the heavens.

Back to Ren's Perspective

Her hands were cold and her breathing was shallow, her brother Hiroto was beside her, holding her close into his embrace and comforting her as they stayed silently, hidden in the bushes, flinching every time they heard someone scream or a screech from a raven. They were in the back of the former Tsuki Compound while their mother was dealing with something and the Tsuki traitor was killing off his own family members slowly and torturously.

She felt weak, and she knew if she activated Raven Eyes, Haiku would immediately fail the whole team; also, she would only be wasting her chakra. In addition, it felt like all the years of honing her skills was a waste as she didn't even have enough strength to carry a pebble.

A piercing screamed rocked the heavens and Ren nearly wet herself. "Oka-sama (a formal way of saying 'Mother') will be here soon, Ren-chan," Hiroto comforted her, "don't cry, Ren-chan."

Ren found herself shaking, which seemed strange because she would never be _this _pathetic when it came to dangerous situations. _This is me when I was five, _she told herself_, basically, I can still use chakra if I just ****ING CONCENTRATE!_

Suddenly, a figure appeared beside them and the two siblings nearly screamed when the figure's hands closed around their wide-open mouths. Ren felt the warmth of this person's hand. _Oka-sama_, tears welled up in her eyes. She had never realized she had missed her own mother this much. Her mother smiled sadly and said, "You will be safe soon, both of you. I will protect my children even if it's the last thing I'll do." Hiroto's eyes welled up with bitter tears, "No...Oka-sama..."

Not standing for her mother's sacrifice, Ren said loudly, though not loud enough for the Tsuki traitor to hear, "Please! Oka-sama! Let me fight! You and Hiro-nii go to the Tsuki's secret facility!" Hiroto and her mother stared at her in horror, "Ren-chan! You can't! Even if all of us die, you and Hiroto can stay alive and lead your own futures!"

"Then leave me here," Ren said, breathing heavily but confidently, "If I'm going to die, I'd rather die as a proper shinobi."

Hiroto started to protest, but was quickly cut off by his mother, whose panicked expression changed into a serene and solemn one, though her eyes, no matter how dark they were, filled with absolute faith and trust.

"Please, no matter what, be safe," her mother said.

Ren's face lit up slightly and dove in to give her mother and Hiroto a good, tight hug. "Ren-chan, please be careful..." Hiroto sobbed, mucus running down his red nose as he hugged Ren even tighter. Ren gave him a kiss on the forehead and released them from her embrace. Her mother immediately made a hand seal as dark, enormous wings sprouted from her back.

"Raven Eyes!" she said.

She grabbed Hiroto, who hesitantly clung on to her as she readied herself to fly off.

"Bye, Oka-sama, Hiro-nii," she said softly, as they took off in high speed, wings fluttering behind her. In the distance, her mother stopped and turned to Ren. Even if it was just for a millisecond, she could just see a teardrop leave her face.

Ren willed herself not to cry as she made the similar hand seal. Chakra rushed in her veins, increasing and filling her with strength, feeling as though she could battle the world. Similar black wings sprouted from her back as her electric blue eyes changed into purely empty, dark-black. "Raven Eyes!" she shouted. _Heh, I'll risk it. _

Blood pumped throughout her body as she flew out of the bush, her feet barely touching the ground as she dodged the dead, 'raven-fied' bodies around her, missing the slippery crimson liquid all over the grass and only concentrating on the opened entrance before her. There was a trail of blood, and if her senses were correct, they led to the current Head of the Family's room.

She lost control at the thought of her great-grandfather dying and her wings took flight, speeding so much that wind cut her cheek, spilling blood down her chin. She screeched like a bird in anger and almost crashed into the wall if she hadn't diverted her body in time. She was here. The doors to her grandfather's room were wide open so she sped in, meeting the dark eyes of the traitor.

"Well, well, well," the traitor said, smirking, "the little princess Ren-hime (-hime refers to princess), no?" he moved slightly and Ren caught sight of his bloodied katana. It was standing firmly on...the throat of her great-grandfather's neck, which was gushing blood, his eyes still holding a little bit of life.

"Ren...my princess..." the old geezer croaked, "Run away...he will destroy you..."

"Save it, old man," Ren's voice changed into a darker, emptier tone, "I resolve to kill the person who has hurt my family, and nobody will stop me."

"Go!" the old geezer's voice was louder this time, begging his precious great-grandchild to escape while she had the chance, "Raven Eyes will not be able to save you! He...has surpassed all members of the clan of ravens! You will have no chance against him!"

Ren, as usual, ignored him, as she unsheathed Ying from her back and charged.

Back to Haiku

_Holy shit..._Haiku thought in amazement as he watched his students sitting on the log. He couldn't believe it; the main objective of the test was not to escape the Genjutsu...well, it was technically impossible without a third party to insert chakra into the person under Genjutsu's chakra flow, punch the person (at the least), or had learnt how to escape Genjutsu in the first place.

And, well, even if they _were _able to escape it, he would still have failed them as it was not the point of the test. The absolute _real _point was to get them to erase every single ounce of regret from their conscience to get the guts to protect the ones they loved, even if they died from not having their former strength. Haiku recalled one of the shinobi conducts that true ninjas were to be able to erase all their feelings. Well, he thought that was utter crap, and decided that shinobi had to erase all their feelings when the situation _NEEDED it._

And his three students had done it. They, at that point, did exactly what he needed them to do. Natsume didn't run away from the Iwagakure shinobi and let his sister escape even though he would definitely get killed, Kotarou decided not to hide but to fight the assassin to save his family members while they were still 'slightly' alive and Ren instantly took her mother's place in defeating the traitor even though like Natsume and Kotarou, she would've been killed.

All three had passed, the first three to have ever passed Haiku's psychologically difficult test.

Haiku genuinely smiled, he had found his dream team. Deciding that it was high time to release the Genjutsu, he flicked his fingers, and his students' eyes shot open. Kotarou gasped as he fell on the ground on all fours, his cat ears and tail appearing from his body as he snarled at...whatever there was for him to snarl at. Natsume leapt back and slashed an arc in front of him with an invisible kunai and Ren quickly made the hand seal for Raven Eyes.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you guys! Calm down! You pass!"

The expressions on the genins' faces were absolutely priceless: Kotarou, Natsume and Ren were jaw-slacked, which looked highly amusing to the bemused yet impressed jounin.

Ren, Natsume, Kotarou: SAY WHAAAAT!

"You – guys – pass!" Haiku grinned, taking matters the Kakashi way. After he said it more slowly this time round, Kotarou leapt into the air and screamed, "YATTTA! YATTTA! FUCK YEAAAH!"

Natsume slumped into the ground, smirking slightly and lying against the tree whilst Ren pumped her fist into the air, "Hey, Haiku-sensei! When are we starting?"

Haiku grinned and said, "Tomorrow at seven."

Haiku then proposed, "Since you guys are the first team I've passed, we'll go to Yakiniku's, my treat." As if on cue, all three of the genins' stomachs grumbled very, very loudly. "Ne, Haiku-sensei," Ren smiled sadistically, "expect a large bill."

Haiku sweatdropped at the sight of the mock sadistic smiles on his students' faces; well this was obvious payback after what he made them go through after all.

In the end, though, the three genin had the glory of being the first team Haiku had fully accepted. _Now, they are only the sparks, _Haiku thought, smiling, walking with his three students who were chattering and laughing (Kotarou and Ren though), _but one day, I bet, they will grow into flames that will protect our beloved Konoha._

He paused as he suddenly realized how quiet the atmosphere became as they retreated from the forest. He turned to his students, who were looking at him. Kotarou broke into a grin, "You're not so bad after all, sensei!"

_What...what! Did they just r-read my mind or something? _Haiku panicked. The genin, including Natsume, broke into peals of laughter, Kotarou holding his stomach and instantly falling over the ground laughing like a maniac, Natsume's hand clutching his mouth, snorting and Ren pointing at Haiku, tears in her eyes and shaking with mad giggles, "H-Haiku-sensei!" she shouted through giggles, "You – look – so – freaking – predictable!"

Haiku had tick marks all over his head as he raised a fist at the three genin and yelled, "STOP READING MY MIND, YOU LITTLE BRATS!"

Meanwhile at Yakiniku

_Oh god..._Ino stared at Chouji who was basically stuffing himself with plates of meat from the grill; _I can't believe I'm stuck with these two! Lucky Sakura..._

After a moment, Shikamaru decided to ask something.

"Oh, right," Shikamaru said out of the blue, breaking the silence at their table (A/N: Well, you can't really call it silent if Chouji was chomping away with his food...), "You know Ren, right?" he asked Ino, her elbows on the table and her head resting on her hands, terrible manners for a girl.

"Yeah..." Ino said slowly, not sure where this was going. She recalled how dark the raven-haired heiress's eyes were as she almost crushed Sakura's hand with a single fist. And she swore she felt Ren's chakra levels increase greatly. Thank god it was only Sakura, if it was someone like Sasuke who was exceptionally strong; Ren would probably have made no hesitation to crush his fist.

"What about Tsuki-san?" Ino asked nervously. Shikamaru leant back slightly on his seat and rested his spiky pineapple hair on the cushiony surface, "She asks if those from Team 7, 8 and 10 are able to come over to her sleepover at the Tsuki Compound after missions on Friday and stay until Sunday morning. Means you as well."

_Why would Tsuki-san ask _me _too? _Ino thought curiously, _after all those complaints Sakura and I spread about her...she still accepts us? _

"You shouldn't really underestimate Ren, Ino," Shikamaru told her after seeing her sceptical expression, "If you took your eyes and mind off Sasuke for even five minutes you'll see that she means well to make friends."

Ino crossed her arms and gave a cross, "Hmph! I _won't _take my eyes of Sasuke-kun now that he's with Forehead Girl!"

She stopped before blushing slightly and asking, "W-Will Sasuke-kun be there?"

Shikamaru mentally sighed, mention Sasuke's name and the troublesome blondie (Ino, not Naruto) would immediately go all-fangirl on the team.

"Yes, Ren invited him along with Naruto and Sakura," Shikamaru said as he watched Ino's lovey-dovey expression change into a cringe, "If Sakura or Tsuki-san touches _my _Sasuke-kun I'm gonna rip them apart!"

"Pretty obvious Ren is more focused on Ninjutsu than finding a lover," he bluntly pointed out, "and remember, she's stronger than the whole of Team 10 put together. Some say she's on par with Sasuke."

Ino snorted, "No-one can beat _my _Sasuke-kun! Tsuki-san's too scared to even beat Sakura! _I _should be the top female genin!"

A tick mark entered Shikamaru's forehead at Ino's previous comment. Ren didn't beat Sakura to the crap yesterday because pretty much everyone who had tested Ren's power knew her dangerous reputation and also regarding the fact that she didn't want to be looked down upon for beating someone as weak as Sakura. Secondly, she was the highest female rookie genin, not Ino (Iruka already stated it earlier, Ino must be deaf), who had no chance of beating even to the likes of Chouji.

In fact, Shikamaru once fought her by her wishes and got beaten within an inch of his life. He even pushed himself to the limit but admitted that even his intelligence could not match up to her ninja abilities. From that day on, he trained slightly harder and spent less time snoozing. It was the same day that his interest in Ren piqued.

"But I'll come," Ino said after a few moments, she suddenly had this dreamy look in her eye, "_Kyaaa! I'm gonna get Sasuke-kuuuun!" _

"What are you talking about, Ino?" their jounin teacher, Asuma, asked, rubbing his ears gently from all the screaming done by Ino.

"More!" Chouji said after finishing his seventh plate. Asuma sighed and ordered another platter.

Shikamaru sighed and commented, "Chouji, you're eating way too much again."

Chouji ignored him and immediately dug into the meat, the succulent scent of the glorious, luscious meat music to the fatso's ears.

"Yo, Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji," called a deep voice and a sharp bark.

Ino and Shikamaru turned to the direction of the voice. To their surprise/annoyance, it was Team Kurenai, or Team 8, to be precise. Their members were the shy and timid Hyuuga Hinata, the loud dog-boy Inuzuka Kiba and his puppy Akamaru and the almost silent Aburame Shino. Next to them was the partially beautiful Yuuhi Kurenai, their jounin leader.

Even if it was just for a moment, Shikamaru saw Asuma glance at mainly Kurenai before his gaze returned to Chouji who was not giving a damn that everyone could hear his loud munching.

"How annoying," Shikamaru grumbled.

"What's this about a sleepover?" Kiba asked, who Ino noticed, was sweaty like Hinata and Shino.

"Tsuki-san is holding a sleepover at her house on Friday after missions to Sunday morning," Ino explained, "We're all invited."

A light bulb suddenly went off in Kiba's head. No way in hell was he missing the chance of going over to Ren's house, _his _beloved Ren-chan's!

"I'll l-love to come," Hinata stuttered.

Shikamaru glanced at Shino, who nodded expectantly before walking towards an empty table along with Kurenai.

"Sure, I'll come," Kiba said nonchalantly, playing it cool. _Inner Kiba: FUCK YEAH I'm going to Ren-chan's house! Naruto's not gonna beat me now! _

"I'll – *chomp* – come – *munch, munch* too!" Chouji said through mouthfuls of teppanyaki. _Now I've got to relay the message to Ren_, Shikamaru thought, _meh, so troublesome._

"Eh? Everyone's already here!"

All attention was diverted to the raven-haired princess walking in with two rather handsome 'bodyguards-who-are-super-paranoid-over-their-female-teammate', Ino quirked an eyebrow at (sigh) the spiky brunette with gorgeous ocean-blue tints and the blondie with the forest green tints . _Oh wow, what hotties...the blondie looks pretty cute..._Ino thought slyly.

For some really-delusional-reason-to-Shikamaru's-eyes, he lightened up when he caught sight of the 'girl he kissed awkwardly yesterday' walking towards them.

"Nice to see you, Hina, are you coming over to my sleepover?" Ren asked excitedly rushing towards the shy brunette. Hinata smiled and nodded shortly, "T-Thank you s-so much f-for inviting us, Ren-chan."

"Hey yeah, Ren-chan, are dogs allowed?" Kiba asked, pointing to the white dog sitting on his head, obviously Akamaru, who shot Ren a dose of the puppy dog eyes she knew the Inuzuka clan were brilliant at. Ren laughed good-naturedly and said, "Of course, I'll prepare a bed especially for Aka."

Ino suddenly came up to Ren's side and wrapped her arm around her shoulders tightly, whispering mainly for Ren to hear, "Ne, ne, Tsuki-san...are those guys your teammates or something?" Ino asked curiously.

Ren raised her eyebrow and replied, "Um, yeah?"

"Be kind enough to introduce me to them?" Ino asked pleadingly.

Ren smirked and said loudly; "Guys, these two are my new teammates from Team 15, Hideki Kotarou..." she beckoned towards the blonde, who gave a sweet smile that sent Ino straight to heaven. Much to her annoyance and Natsume's annoyance though, Kotarou glided up towards Hinata and kissed her hand like how he did to Ren.

"Pleased to meet you, my lady," Kotarou winked at Hinata before withdrawing back to his original place, Hinata blushing like a tomato.

"And this guy is Natsume, just don't try to do anything funny to him or do anything to me and/or Kotarou or he'll punch you straight to the wall," Natsume snorted reminiscing about the earlier encounter with Team 7.

"Natsume and Kotarou, please meet my former classmates: From Team 10, Yamanaka Ino, the blonde in the purple outfit," Ino fluttered her eyelashes at the two guys. Natsume and Kotarou sweatdropped, thinking, _Shoot, another freaking fangirl_.

"The lazy guy with the pineapple 'do', Shikamaru Nara," Ren beckoned to Shikamaru, who was trying not to blush about what happened yesterday afternoon.

"The guy who's eating like there's no tomorrow, Akimichi Chouji, oh yes, kindly do not call him anything that relates to the word 'fat'," Ren whispered the last part as not to provoke Chouji.

"And these three are Team 8: Hyuuga Hinata, the girl you've just flamboyantly kissed," Ren drawled, trying not to smirk at Hinata's cute blush.

"Inuzuka Kiba and Akamaru, his dog, they're not very much unalike from Naruto," Kiba and Akamaru protested at this, "Hey! Don't compare us to Naruto of all people!"

"And Aburame Shino, the guy in sunglasses," there was obviously not much information on him that Ren knew of. He was so quiet in the Academy that she had almost forgotten his pending existence.

Kotarou smiled gladly at all of them, Natsume slightly hesitant but broke into a rather awkward half-grin after awhile. Hinata blushed slightly at Kotarou, who highly reminded her of Naruto. Ino had this starry look in her eyes, Kiba and unexpectedly Shikamaru were staring daggers at the two, handsome, oblivious genin, and Kurenai, Asuma and Shino were obviously minding their own business and Chouji...kept on eating.

"Ne, Kotarou, where's sensei?"

As if they suddenly realized their teacher ditching them, Natsume tick marked all over that place, growling, "That son-of-a-*****!"

"Language, please," Kurenai scolded nonchalantly, ordering a few platters of meat and vegetables (Team 8's table was next to Team 10's).

Ino, seeing that this was a perfect opportunity she could not mess up, she proposed, "Hey, why don't you guys join us? Asuma-sensei can treat all of us; right, Asuma-sen-sei?" Asuma attempted to retaliate, but the killer intent coming off his scary feminist student made him rethink otherwise.

"Fine, fine...geez, you guys are gonna bankrupt me someday..." Asuma said dejectedly.

"Your student over there is doing it perfectly fine," Kotarou noted.

"A-Ano, Ren-chan..." Hinata murmured. Much to her chagrin, every single person in Team 8, 10 and 15 took the trouble to look at her, she flushed scarlet and said, "W-What are we d-doing for the d-duration of those days?"

Ren smirked, "I think you guys might like to hear this. Horror videos, snacks _and_ we're gonna have a spar with each other."

"A spar?" Shino surprisingly asked.

"Just friendly spars like me against Hinata or Ino against Kotarou," she explained further, taking in the shocked look on Ino's face and the gratifying one in Kotarou's. "I only want all of us to familiarize our attacks and help each other and by this sparring program; we may _hopefully _improve our skills."

Ren carefully watched her teammates' and her former classmates' reactions'. Kiba had this wolfish grin on his face, Natsume was impassive, Kotarou's eyes carried some interest, Ino was blushing, probably at the thought of fighting her idol Kotarou, Chouji had finally glanced up for a moment from his food and returned eating, nodding, Hinata seemed tense but determined; unexpectedly, Shino said, "Sounds intriguing." She watched Shikamaru's reaction, which was his perfectly normal 'troublesome' expression.

"You guys should go for it," Asuma said, "Shikamaru, you need the exercise."

"Shino, Kiba and Hinata as well," Kurenai nodded, her iron-stoic expression still plastered on her face, "I approve of this program."

"Great!" Ren clapped her hands, "Now let's eat!"

"Itadakimasu!"

Meanwhile with Haiku

Phew, he had been lucky that his students' backs were turned once when he pointed out a hawk flying overhead (who knew they had never seen a hawk before?). He had cast a Genjutsu on all three making them _think _that he was still there when he had already escaped so as to NOT clear out his lifetime savings.

He had just left the tower reserved solely for special jounin and jounin and the occasional chuunin. Between writing a highly detailed report on their test and spending his money on three pissed off genin, he would pick the report in a nutshell. Oh by the way, he was SO getting it from his students the next day.

Unfortunately after he finished his report, he met up with Kakashi on the way to the Hokage Tower. To the eyes of many ninja, seeing the two jounin who have never passed a single cell associate with each other seemed reasonable, but for starters, they disliked each other – scratch that – they mutually HATED each other.

If there were a few things Haiku highly took an obsession to was number one, punctuality, and Kakashi had the worst record for being late. Two, if there was anything erotic/perverted/sick or related to Jiraiya's books in his presence, his chakra would rise in an instant (out of anger), and Kakashi had the whole collection of _Icha-Icha_. Lastly was constant reminders and Kakashi occasionally – like twice a week – took the 'effort' to brag about his Sharingan and his 1000 jutsus. Since Kakashi was the first one to hit all three of Haiku's 'immediate hate' quotas, he was number 1 in Haiku's bingo book.

"Hatake," Haiku growled with distaste.

"Takumi," Kakashi reacted similarly with higher distaste.

The current tension in the atmosphere suddenly dropped to at least minus ten degrees Celsius. The jounin and special jounin walking past them had shivers running up their spines from the two shinobi whom looked like they were having a Naruto-Sasuke glare-off.

"So, who's on your team?" Kakashi attempted a non-sneer.

"Oh, just the last survivors of their clans and a remnant from the shinobi war at Kusagakure," Haiku smirked evilly.

Kakashi sweated a bit, _Shit, I can't lose against this sadist._

"I have the last remaining _Uchiha _and a serial strategist/prankster on my team," Kakashi said triumphantly.

"I have three geniuses on my team."

"One has Chuunin level chakra and the other has Kage-level chakra."

Suddenly, for absolutely no reason at all in the middle of the desert-like heat, they ranted like there was no tomorrow, in an irrational way as well.

"All three are bishounen and bishoujo!"

"One has exotic pink hair!"

"All of them wield swords!"

"One is the heartthrob of all of Konoha!"

"Two of them have kekkei genkai!"

"One is a -"

Haiku was cut off by the forbidding presence behind him. The hairs on his neck stood up like needles. Very, _very _unfortunately for the two jounin, it was the Hokage, and he was not exactly in one of his better moods. "Kakashi, Haiku, come to my office." The Hokage instantly turned his back on the depressed jounin and walked back to his office.

For once, they actually agreed on something.

_Oh **** _(insert 4-letter curse word of choice)

Back to Ren

It was late afternoon and everyone started to depart to different ways. As Kotarou and Natsume lived together, they walked back together, which made Ren blush VERY hard.

Ino was attempting to follow Ren's beautiful teammates but was quickly dragged back by the unusually helpful Shikamaru and Asuma. Hinata seemed forlorn in going back to the Hyuuga Compound; Kiba was 'talking' to Akamaru and she could hear an annoying buzz coming off Shino when she brushed past him. And Chouji...was eating a bag of chips. Go figure.

It was an unexpectedly quiet evening. There was no sound of the birds chirping despite it being only late afternoon, but there should be _some _noise. She stopped her pace and glanced around the forest that was a shortcut to her home. There was something wrong. The tense atmosphere was too strong.

She shut her eyes and unconsciously activated Raven Eyes.

Unlike her brother, who had covered one stage of Raven Eyes, she had secretly gotten her kekkei genkai to include animalistic senses as an improvement.

After a few moments, she tapped her fingers on her kunai, waiting for a time to attack. _Rustle, rustle. _Instinctively, she threw the kunai with razor-sharp precision towards a tree beside her. There was a yowl of pain as blood slid down the trunk of the tree slowly.

There was a flash of movement as Ren took only a few steps backward and grabbed several shurikens in her left hand. With her right hand, she unleashed a smoke bomb and threw it on the ground. She quickly formed a hand seal.

She spotted a flash of duck-butt hair and she let her guard down, only for a moment, but her attacker had a kunai to her neck.

"Gotcha."

Ren grinned as 'she' pointed a kunai to the back of Sasuke's neck. Sasuke flinched when the blade touched his neck, "K-Kage Bunshin?" He called out half-confidently. Ren smirked as she nodded to the Kage Bunshin behind Sasuke. It quickly dissipated as Sasuke lowered his kunai and Ren slipped back her shuriken.

"What's up, Uchiha?"

Sasuke smirked slightly, "Just wanted to test out those skills of yours."

"Impressed?"

"Nothing like the Uchihas' Sharingan." Ren frowned, "Damn you Uchiha."

For once in Ren's years of being the cocky Uchiha's classmate, he chuckled. Not an evil chuckle like the one certain ninja used to intimidate victims, but a high, good-hearted chuckle. It subsided quickly and the Uchiha's posture turned blank again.

"I heard about you and Shikamaru," his face darkened and possibly, his eyes as well.

"You – what!" Ren flushed bright scarlet, and was very, very angry. "Y-You were _stalking _me!"

"Er...no," Sasuke scratched his head and gave Ren a slightly surprised look, "Ino was bugging Shikamaru about when I passed by."

"So that's why you approached me?" Ren had this sinking feeling in the stomach like the one she had when Shikamaru approached to kiss her.

Sasuke didn't say anything as he dropped the kunai on the ground, his gaze never leaving Ren's. Cautiously, she stepped back, only to be grabbed by the tank top and shoved against the prickly tree. She winced in pain and glared at the Uchiha, who stepped closer to her, slamming a hand on the tree bark when she tried to escape.

"What are you doing, Uchiha!" Ren demanded, outraged.

Sasuke scowled and said in a restrictedly calm tone, "You willingly let Shikamaru kiss you and not me?"

Ren blushed harder and tried not to meet the dangerously aroused Uchiha's eyes. Her heart felt like doing back flips. If either Ino or Sakura saw this little erotic scene, she would never live another day again, and she had already planned to live for at least another twenty years or so until she died of an _honourable _shinobi death.

The seductive Sasuke leaned towards her, a smirk on his lips. Ren shut her eyes and attempted to look away from him, to no ado, however, his cold, bony fingers traced up to her jaw line and gently reverted it so she faced him directly. "You are very interesting," he said, intrigued, sending shivers up her spine. He stepped even closer, whispering into her ear so his cold skin touched hers. Ren whimpered slightly.

"You are nothing like Ino or Sakura," he started, stroking her silky hair, finding her ribbon and taking it off in one swift move. She tried to protest as her hair fluttered around her waist but her legs shook and it wouldn't be very convincing to the stubborn Uchiha that she wanted him to stop.

His smirk got wider as he stroked her face, lifting it slightly so they were eye-to-eye. "You have the makings of a true shinobi," he continued, "and the looks of a bishoujo."

"Don't flatter me," Ren said, gaining back her confidence, "I'm still gonna punch you straight to the deepest pits of hell."

Sasuke didn't listen and he instantly held her hair tightly in his grasp so she was unable to dodge. "Please, Uchiha!" she begged, her face so warm and red that it was on par with Hinata's mega-blush.

Just as he was about to 'attack' her, a kunai shot past them, very nearly slicing of a strand of her hair, though she assumed that it was really aiming at the Uchiha.

"Get the hell away from her!" Ren flinched, she _knew _that voice, but why _he _of all people...?

Sasuke released his grip on her, his eyes stone cold and his face totally expressionless. He growled at the faint figure of Neji Hyuuga. He had his Byakugan activated like Hinata and his dark hair was _flaring_. Just seeing his eyes made Ren shake in fear. Pretty obviously, he was in a mood for killing.

Surprisingly, Sasuke's smirk returned as he slowly got off her and wiped a trace of saliva from his mouth. "I'm not going to show off my skills to the likes of you, so _ja ne _(goodbye)," he said cockily, waving his fingers at the pissed Hyuuga. When Ren blinked, the Uchiha disappeared from her sight.

In a flurry of movement, Neji immediately came to her side, deactivating his Byakugan and kneeling in front of her, his lavender eyes filled with intense worry as he brushed a strand of her raven locks from her face.

She was crying. _Ren _of all people was crying. Tears dropped down her cheeks. Her normally confident eyes were brimming with tears. She choked as she slid down the trunk of the tree and huddled in a small ball pitifully.

_This is a difficult situation_, Neji analyzed, _I'm gonna beat the crap out of that idiot who did this to Hiroto's beloved imoto_. He sat down carefully beside her and awkwardly wrapped his hand around her shoulders non-forcefully. He could feel her warm body heat and a tinge of blush entered his pale cheeks.

"Don't cry, Ren," he whispered softly and reassuringly, "the jerk's gone. You don't have to worry now." Ren bawled, putting the frazzled Hyuuga off-course.

He mussed her hair like how an older brother would do to a younger sister who was upset.

"Neji," he heard her murmur as she laid her head on his thumping chest, "Arigatou, Neji." They stayed like that for awhile in an awkward position; but the Hyuuga had confusing things in his mind that would normally put an inexperienced boy into a fix. Neji had this odd feeling returning to him that he had only reserved for Hiroto. Love.


	4. Stuck Together! Team Training!

**Disclaimer: Naruto and pretty much everyone in it belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I only own my OCs.**

**Chapter Three: **Stuck Together! Team Training! 

Hatake Kakashi and Takumi Haiku were in a very, _very _dangerous position.

Their wrists were bound with chakra shackles (more precisely, Kakashi's left hand was tied to Haiku's right hand). Chakra shackles were like handcuffs, only that they absorbed chakra when someone tried to use a jutsu to get out of them. Also, they were unbreakable unless the person who put them on in the first place took them off with their chakra.

As punishment for acting like two Academy Students in the middle of the glaring heat and in front of basically MANY of the shinobi, the Hokage, being the clever geezer he was, bound them together for a duration of three freaking days. _THREE. FREAKING. DAYS! _

"This is basically punishment for the both of you to get along," the Hokage said calmly, "Getting along is crucial for peace, especially for the pride of Konohagakure. If the two of you do not get along by the end of the three days, the binding will extend."

"H-Hokage-sama!" Haiku gaped.

So basically, they were stuck together for three days or more.

"What about our teams!" Kakashi demanded with restrained anger.

"As if you goddamn care, Hatake! You're late for _everything_!" Haiku shot back at the white-haired jounin. "You dipshit..." Kakashi glared at the green-haired sadist.

"You will arrange the timings for your teams _together_ and arrive _together _at the designated area, which I will provide at Training Area 42," the Hokage continued, blatantly ignoring the two arguing jounin.

At the Tsuki Compound

Neji had carried his friend's sister in his arms, walking back to the Tsuki Compound and ignoring many of the civilians' curious looks, worrying his mind about Ren's condition. _What will Hiroto think? _

Not surprisingly, Hiroto was standing by the doorway, arms folded; his shoe tapping on the dent on the ground and continuously glancing at his watch, which showed the time: 5: 45 p.m.

Earlier during the day on Hiroto's day off, he became slightly tense when it struck lunchtime, then dismissed it quickly at the thought of Ren having lunch with some of her friends. Though after _two fucking hours _and _no _contact whatsoever from his sister, he began grinding his teeth and trying to watch TV trying to take his mind off of her safety.

He had many options on what might have happened: 1. Ren was raped 2. Then she was kidnapped 3. Sold to some stinking perverted douchebags. Later he remembered before reporting to the Hokage that Ren could kick a Chuunin's ass in ten minutes.

He thought again. 1. The test was so tiring that her chakra reserves were depleted 2. Basically helpless, she was injured by enemy shinobi. _Then _he remembered it was impossible that enemy ninja would be skulking around Konoha preying on young rookies.

After minutes of hypothesizing, he built up the courage to check outside to see if she had came back at that moment. Horror overwhelmed him when he saw his best friend Neji _carrying _her and walking towards the Compound.

He felt relieved and angry at the same time. What in hell's name had happened to his beloved imoto!

"Neji! What happened!" he demanded running up to his friend and immediately checking her unusually pale and cold face. She whimpered before snuggling into Neji's warm shirt. "She was sexually assaulted," Neji said, trying hard not to blush.

"By who?"

Neji shrugged his shoulders. Later, they heard a murmur from Ren. "Uchiha..." she croaked, "...Sasuke."

Hiroto snapped. He immediately pulled up his sleeves and attempted to make a dash towards the Uchiha Compound to beat up the screwed up bastard who 'almost' took away Ren's innocence when Neji placed a firm hand on his friend's shoulder to prevent him from doing anything that he might regret later in life.

"This may sound exasperating but you need to CALM DOWN," Neji said with inhumane calmness, "There is a possibility that someone Henged (transformed) into Uchiha to assault her or she was put under Genjutsu the minute she entered the forest."

Hiroto paused and grudgingly stepped down. He cursed his friend's intelligent reasoning.

"Right now we have to worry about Ren," Neji said in a kinder tone. Handing over Ren to Hiroto, the two went back inside the Compound and shut the door firmly behind them. Hiroto lay her down on one of the couches in the living room and shot up the stairs to her bedroom to retrieve her blanket, Neji went into the kitchen to get a towel and some hot water. After a few minutes, Ren's head was gently placed on a comfy pillow with a warm towel on her forehead and a blanket over her shivering body.

Hiroto glanced at Neji and bowed quickly, "Thank you so much for finding my sister, Neji."

Neji turned an interesting shade of ochre and stuttered, "I-It's alright. I was w-worried as well when I came over anyway."

Hiroto beckoned Neji to the couch directly opposite of Ren's with a tall coffee table in between the two couches. Neji sat down uncertainly, a little uncomfortable with the setting. He shifted his legs together, uncharacteristically nervous. Well, who wouldn't be if they were _inside _their crush's house and they were willingly _inviting _you in?

Hiroto abruptly sat down beside him, a mask of absolute determination. Neither of them spoke a word as they looked after the distressed, naive girl. But seeing there was no conversation going on, Neji decided to go back 'home', "Ano, Hiroto, I'm going home..."

Hiroto's hand shot up and grabbed the tense Hyuuga by the elbow. Neji shivered in Hiroto's warm touch, even his practical, emotionless, iron-hard Hyuuga glare softened. "H-Hiroto?"

Not as gently as what 'Sasuke' did to Ren, Hiroto's iron grip on the Hyuuga's elbow tightened and he harshly pulled him in. Their lips crashed together and Neji felt like he had just smashed into an iron wall. The pain subsided though when Hiroto took a softer approach and gently pulled Neji closer, one hand around his neck and the other around his waist. The blushing protégé of the Hyuuga didn't need to be told twice as he willingly gave in. This was _exactly _what he wanted from him.

"H-Hiroto," Neji moaned softly as his lover's fingers caressed his flowing brown hair with expertise. Hiroto, taking advantage of his cute uke's vulnerability, started massaging Neji's sensitive outer folds with his skilled tongue. Neji started to moan even louder, arousing Hiroto. Playing affectionately with his uke, he nipped Neji's ear, in turn the Hyuuga blushing fifty shades of red.

At this point, Neji had toppled over and was lying on the couch, looking helpless but surprisingly seductive to the seme Hiroto, who was a sadist in torture as well as sex.

Taking it to another level, Hiroto traced the hem line of Neji's tan shorts with his index finger all the way to his bony but soft stomach but not touching his erect nipples even slightly. Neji flushed in embarrassment and protested, "Stop teasing me!"

Showing off his sexy smile, Hiroto started to tantalizingly lick Neji's neck, slowly with his moist pink tongue until Neji let out a half-moan and bucked, his groin crashing into Hiroto's.

It was a pleasurable moment for the two of them as Hiroto decided that they go even further by unzipping Neji's pants only to be rudely interrupted by the doorbell. Both of them creatively cursed as Hiroto quickly got off Neji in an instant, Neji following him as they went to see who abruptly stopped their session.

Hiroto yanked the door open out of anger that Neji flinched slightly but still tried to look like a professional shinobi. He didn't need to go through all the trouble though because as soon as Hiroto nearly wrenched the door of its hinges, two _fully grown _men were fighting it out on his doorstep. And not just any men. _Shinobi_.

One had spiky white hair that made it look like he hung himself upside down just to get that look and one had crazy green-colored hair and penetrable red eyes that gave Hiroto the shivers.

They were _still _continuing to brawl like a bunch of kids until they stretched Hiroto's patience as much as it could take and the annoyed Tsuki grabbed the two shinobis' vests and wrenched them apart, but not completely, as they were bound - what looked like - with chakra shackles.

The white-haired jounin shouted (at the green-haired one), "What the **** was that for you screwed up sadist!"

The red-eyed one retorted, "I only told you to watch out for traps, usuratonkachi (idiot of idiots)!"

They were both cut off by the killer intent emanating from the pretty pissed off genin, who had first intended to knock them out with his Raven Eyes before continuing his session.

"Calm down, Hiroto," Neji said, reverting back to his Hyuuga-style stoic manner.

Hiroto nodded in respect as he released the two jounin on the ground, the two instantly standing back up with expressions as if nothing had happened. "My name is Takumi Haiku and this idiot here is Hatake Kakashi," the green-haired jounin introduced, earning a glare from the white-haired jounin, "And who might you be?"

"I am Tsuki Hiroto, older brother of Tsuki Ren and this person is Hyuuga Neji from the Hyuuga Clan," Hiroto said blandly. Kakashi tilted his head for a moment and pointed to Neji, who hadn't yet realized that his hair was loose, "Girlfriend?" Kakashi questioned.

Neji gave him the famous Hyuuga Glare that brought most civilians down to their knees and growled, "I'm a boy!"

"Meh, they always say that," Kakashi muttered under his breath.

"That is _not _why we are here though," Haiku said with restrained politeness, giving a glare to Kakashi to shut the hell up before he punched him straight to the skies, "I am the jounin sensei of Tsuki Ren and I need to talk to her for an..._arrangement_."

Hiroto nodded, spot-checking the two jounin before he led them inside, Neji returning back to the couch, his face completely expressionless to the eyes of the visitors.

Haiku was slightly surprised to see his student lying on the couch with a blanket over her and a towel on her forehead, looking helpless and weak unlike the healthy, strong kunoichi he had seen earlier. Even Kakashi seemed curious as they sat as far apart as possible from each other. "What happened to her?" Haiku asked, quite concerned for once.

Neji decided to explain as Hiroto would go off in an hour-long rant about killing Sasuke, who might or might not be Ren's attacker. "Apparently, Uchiha Sasuke sexually assaulted her, but it is very unclear." Kakashi spit out his saliva purposely at Haiku's face before yelling, "EXCUSE ME!"

Neji flinched and asked, "Pardon?"

"Sasuke will never assault someone and a _girl _of all human beings –" Kakashi was immediately cut off by the pissed Takumi who was slamming him on the head with his fist, "Hatake! Control your kids from assaulting mine, would you for once!"

"It is _very unclear_," Neji repeated loudly.

Kakashi smirked as Haiku winced. Hiroto interrupted, "Do you want to wake her up?"

"That would suffice," Haiku said through gritted teeth as he tried to hold back by the injured jounin from screaming into his ear.

Hiroto sat down beside his healthier-looking sister and gave her one of his pokes. For a moment, no sound came from her; then she groaned loudly, "Nani (what)?"

"Wake up, Ren-chan, your teacher is here," Hiroto said softly. With another groan, Ren willed herself to sit up straight. She felt groggy and dizzy like a drunk and her hair was an eternal mess. Her back hurt as she rubbed her eyes slowly. Neji came over to her side and patted her head, "Feeling better?"

Ren gave him a soft, weak smile and replied, "Yes."

Kakashi's and Haiku's eyes widened, was this _Ren_? She looked like she was only six years old!

She turned towards the opposite couch and for a few seconds, her eyes went wide at the sight before her. Her _sensei_, tied to another _man_, her sensei….tied….to….another…._man_. She exploded into peals of laughter and mad giggles which put the four shinobi off guard, tears appearing in her eyes and her cheeks regaining their color as she held her stomach tightly, almost falling off the couch if Hiroto didn't catch her. Her laughter subsided as she took a few deep breaths, choking with ecstasy, "Soooo makes up for you ditching us…."

She reformed to her former self and asked loudly, "Why are you tied like that Haiku-sensei?"

Before Haiku could answer, Kakashi butted in and said, "Thanks to your sensei for making a ruckus at the Hokage Tower we're bound by these chakra shackles for three days as punishment."

Haiku growled and was about to attack Kakashi when Hiroto and Neji held him back with all the strength they could muster, "Screw you guys! Can you stop fighting for my sister's sake!" Hiroto shouted with a tick mark on his brow.

Haiku paused, taking a few light breaths before diverting his attention to his confused student, "Because of our predicament, Team 15 and Team 7 will meet at Training Area 42 at six o' clock sharp for team training."

"Is that all?" Ren asked; a little annoyed that they woke her up just for that reason. Seeing that she was getting more violent by the minute, Neji said, "No. We're also going to discuss about your….earlier encounter with Uchiha Sasuke."

Ren's expression became tense and Kakashi noticed the look in her eyes that resembled something like cloudiness. Neji quickly continued, "There is a possibility that someone Henged into Uchiha to frame him for assaulting you or that you were put under Genjutsu the minute you entered the forest."

Ren's gaze on Neji hardened and replied, "I think so too, usually for an Uchiha, leaving a battle while it is undecided will wound their pride."

"My guess is that someone Henged into Uchiha as even without Raven Eyes, a member with Tsuki blood would be able to recognize a Genjutsu in any situation they are in," Hiroto said, "so in conclusion, someone was really intended to assault Ren-chan but change into someone she knew so he wouldn't get into trouble."

"For now, let's just assume that Sasuke is not the culprit," Kakashi said. He glanced around the room. It was a tense silence, he knew that, and it was better if they left _now_.

At the Inuzuka Compound

For the brash and normally rugged Yakuza-like Kiba, he was in _huge _trouble, and not just _any _trouble. _Girl _trouble.

Inuzuka Tsume, Kiba's mother, who was known to be very rowdy, tough and strict, had this odd feeling that she should check up on Kiba, who, she had found out later, was still out with his friends. So, deciding to do something in her free time, started to clean up his messy bedroom.

Ever seen a boy's bedroom before? Kiba's was ten times worse. For one, his clothes stank like dirt and moss and his towels were filled with little dead bugs, but what shocked her the most was the objects _underneath her son's bed_.

She fingered the crinkly papers under the mattress and quickly pulled them out. She had absolutely no idea whether to congratulate Kiba for achieving his manhood or scold him like there was no tomorrow for being a pervert because the crinkly papers were _photographs…._of a cute and petite girl with raven locks and gorgeous electric blue eyes.

She looked through them with growing irritation. One was the girl walking down the streets of Konoha at the age of five or six, another was her with her hair down, the next was her in a revealing blue _bikini _and the last one nearly made Tsume hit the roof as it was her in the _shower._

_Men, _she mentally growled_, all of them are perverts. _

She made a resolution to check for any _Icha-Icha Paradise_s.

Back to the Tsuki Compound

Eventually, Kakashi and Haiku left (arguing, _again_) but Neji hesitated to leave, only convinced when Hiroto took him aside and sexily whispered into his ear to come back again when Ren wasn't around to have some you-know what (A/N: If you guys didn't like yaoi, don't bother reading this fanfic).

Before Neji left, Ren ran up to him at the doorway and grabbed his shirt tightly before giving him a kiss on the cheek near his mouth. Neji flinched and blushed twenty shades of red..._hell_, she even _tasted _like her brother...

"I want to thank you for looking after me, Neji," Ren gave him a slow, shy, sexy smile she always reserved for the people who she thought deserved it, and made most guys turned on...Neji blushed harder and tried to form words, unsuccessfully. "I-It's...great - I mean - fine! Um..."

Ren giggled and gave him a short hug before waving good-bye to the still dumbstruck Hyuuga, who basically forced himself to walk back to the Hyuuga Compound. Tsk, tsk, poor Neji.

When Ren returned inside, she asked a question that made Hiroto jump out of his skin: "Is there anything going on between you and Neji?"

"NOTHING! THERE IS NOTHING BETWEEN US!" Hiroto yelled hysterically, waving his hands in a panic.

Ren didn't say anything for awhile so Hiroto turned to look at her passive face. She was smiling slightly and her cheeks had a tinge of red; she spoke so softly that without Hiroto's honed animal senses, he would never have caught those few words.

"That's a nice friend you made."

Hiroto stopped in his tracks, a small, minuscule smile on his face. "Yeah, I know."

Ren, smiling genuinely for the first time since 'Sasuke's attack, missed dinner and went to sleep.

**(A/N: Sorry if this part sounds stupid but being a yaoi fan and all I just HAD to write something M-rated to release my sexual urges...probably shouldn't have said that...-_-" and I really love Neji being the uke...)**

The Next Day with Uzumaki Naruto

Naruto, of course, was woken up by the warm, tingly rays of the sun shining through his window, egging him for a fresh new day with his jounin sensei, his one-sided crush, an his bastard rival.

To boot, thanks to the two jounin senseis being bound together, he now got to see his 'lovely girl' for the next three days or more if the two senseis kept fighting/ not getting along. Oddly, it reminded him of he and Sasuke.

In the end, he reheated his Cup Ramen.

With Haruno Sakura

She must have blow-dried her hair for too long because when she patted it down, it nearly fried her hand. She gave a squeal of pain but suppressed it so her mother wouldn't know what was going on.

Why was she going through all this? Well, surely a hottie like _Sasuke _would like a girl to look pretty and strong, right? Well, that was what _Sakura _thought of course. _Women have to suffer for their beauty_, she said haughtily, inspecting herself in the mirror. _Of course, _some _don't have to suffer_, Sakura cursed, seeing that bitch's face in her mind just made her want to beat someone up. And of course, _everyone _knows who that 'bitch' is.

_Oh, she's the goodie-goodie and everyone loves her, _Sakura thought sourly, _even Sasuke-kun seems to like her_.

_What does it take to make him love _me_? _Sakura questioned herself bitterly. She was stuck for awhile, but obviously, not for long, as her forehead-sized brain sparked a brilliant, fool-proof yet petty/selfish idea.

With Uchiha Sasuke

Sasuke had everything organized. He polished his kunais, took a good breakfast and cleaned up afterwards, wore on his shirt with the Uchiha crest on it and his comfortable white shorts and arm warmers. Oh, he couldn't forget his weapons now, could he?

After hearing from Kakashi and Haiku about the new arrangement, he became more...focused. Hell, _Ren _was going to be there, the top female rookie _Ren_. If he ever sparred with her, he made sure that he was going to win no matter what. He smirked to himself, but he wiped off that smirk when he remembered Haiku's coldness and Kakashi's suspicion towards him.

_**Flashback **_

_He had just finished his dinner of rice, vegetables and curry chicken when the doorbell rang. Quite frankly, the sound of hearing it scared him shitless. What if it was Sakura or Ino who found out where he lived and decided to stalk him and probably capture him for their evil devices?_

_He readied his kunai and shuriken and cautiously opened the door, when he saw a flash of silver and two jounin vests, he calmed down, then he felt like laughing like there was no tomorrow when he saw what state Kakashi was in. _

_Kakashi was _tied _to another jounin with weird green hair and red eyes with _chakra shackles_, _ANYONE _would've laugh their asses off until they bust a gut but Sasuke was more composed, he was adamant in NOT laughing for his clan's naturally emotionless pride. _

_The jounin hesitantly told Sasuke his name, which was Takumi Haiku, then Kakashi told Sasuke, "Because of our predicament, you will go to Training Area 42 at six o' clock to have double team training with Team 15." _

_Sasuke nodded impassively and was about to close the door when Haiku's hand shot out and stopped it, "Where were you from three o' clock to five o' clock?" Haiku questioned with recognizable coldness in his tone. _

_"Training," Sasuke attempted to close the door again when Kakashi stopped it this time, "What did you do after training?"_

_"Weapons practice!" Sasuke growled before giving the door one good slam which almost sliced off the jounin's arm._

_Feeling highly annoyed, he went to wash the dishes before showering and went to bed. Though tired from his training and weapons practice, thoughts were hindering in his mind. He understood hostility towards Naruto but the green-haired jounin seemed to act hostile to _him_, Uchiha Sasuke, who, in his whole life, had never met him. And even his teacher, _Kakashi_, seemed wary of him for some reason._

_He brushed away his doubts before dozing off with dreams of kicking Ren's ass._

_**Flashback End**_

At Training Area 42

_This place isn't bad_, Kotarou commented, glancing around at the arena-sized training with Natsume, who was drinking some water from a plastic bottle.

Unlike Team 15's training spot, which obviously was in the goddamn forest where anyone without the help of Natsume's sensory skills would have easily gotten lost, it was in a beautiful terrain where it could be found by possibly any civilian or shinobi if they just 'wandered off in the path of life' for just a few minutes.

Though easily spotted and desired for, the Hokage banned anyone from entering the area as it was only used if a large group of shinobi needed a place for training, the high possibility of it being spotted was because it was near Konoha's Great Waterfall, which was near a hot springs and was sort-of a hot springs itself.

Its great gushing waters were always crystal clear and reasonably warm, Konoha Legend stated that anyone who bathed there would be relieved of all physical, emotional and mental illnesses and stress and possibly gain 'heightened awareness'. To boot, the bather's body would strengthen against all internal injuries due to the 'special substances' in the water and gain more focus.

Only a handful of shinobi - and only with the Hokage's permission - were allowed to bathe there after strenuous missions, but very rarely, as not many high A to S-ranked missions were posted around lately. Konoha's Great Waterfall was so famous that even Kotarou and Natsume heard of it during their time at Kusagakure.

"We'll be so lucky if we're allowed to bathe there," Kotarou said dreamily with his bishounen (also known as 'pretty boy') face on.

"Dream on, Kotarou," Natsume called from the tree he was leaning on. Kotarou was affronted and asked from his place near the wooden dummies (or whatever they're called), "What do you mean 'dream on'?"

"We're only allowed to even step inside there if we're assigned a high A-rank to S-rank mission and _complete _it," Natsume emphasized the second last word, "and the _Hokage _of all people will _never _let a couple of _genin _take it."

"We'll just have to get ready for it then," as usual, their attention was diverted the tired-looking, annoyed Tsuki princess.

"I'll take a guess that you're a really, _really _bad morning person," Natsume said blandly. "No shit, Mr. Ice," Ren made sure to give him the coldest glare she could summon.

And, like Kakashi/Haiku and Naruto/Sasuke, they had a glare war.

Kotarou sweatdropped and attempted to calm the two down when a very annoying voice stopped him.

"Ohayo! Kotarou-kun! Natsume-kun!"

Natsume stiffened; his skin turned paler than usual and looked like he had just stuck himself in the freezer for three days.

Ren waved slowly with a light, effortful smile on her face which was directed at, of course, Haruno Sakura, biggest Sasuke-fangirl in all of Konoha (besides Ino), "Ohayo; Haruno."

Sakura stopped in her tracks and muttered a soft 'ohayo' back to Ren.

Ren's eyebrow raised, if she was wrong – and she was sometimes – there was a flash of guilt in Sakura's eyes, but it disappeared fairly quickly.

Sakura started talking rapidly to Kotarou who kindly felt that she should – in his mind – shut the hell up and leave him alone. Ren tried to stifle a chuckle as she gradually went to lean beside Natsume, which surprised him slightly as he crushed the plastic water bottle in his hand and dumped it in the grass.

"Where did you get those katanas?" Ren asked. This question surprised Natsume even further as Ren was the last person he thought would actually ask him a typically boring question like that because his two crimson red katanas were normally hidden from view ever since they met.

"Kotarou's clan's armory," he explained, "after the Iwa vs. Kusa war, I panicked and went to see if Kotarou was alright; he told me that if we wanted to survive, we should pick out some katanas from one of the meeting places the Hideki Clan took control of and grab some swordsmanship techniques scrolls so we had a dimmer chance of getting killed by enemy ninja."

"Oh," Ren said, "because they look seriously cool."

Ren unsheathed her own katana, Ying, and let Natsume inspect it. Natsume - suprisingly - was quite impressed by its flawless quality. The blade was fine, sharp and seemed to have been polished recently until the blackness of the katana shone; a tip that would draw blood in a single touch, and a comfortable hilt - in a sense - that it could be easily maneuvoured with a twist of his nimble fingers.

"I am not supposed to be the true owner of Ying," she said broodily, "as my grandfather said, I am not cold enough like the opposite of Yang, which rightly belongs to my brother who possess all the qualities of Yang."

"Then why did he let you have it?"

Ren gave a bitter laugh that attracted Kotarou and Sakura, as well as Naruto, who had just arrived and apparently missed Ren. "There _is _no freaking owner worthy of Ying. So who would rather have it than Great-Grandfather's _precious _princess?" Ren's eyes had darkened and had this eerie insane feeling in them which made Natsume slightly wary of her...eccentricities and bipolar antics. But he could guess that she had been shunned by some of her family members before because of her great-grandfather's treatment towards her - favouritism - and damaged her loyalty towards her clan.

"You're crazy," Natsume sweatdropped in the end. Ren merely smiled.

"REN-CHAAAAN!" amazingly like lightning, Naruto shot towards Ren and tackled her to the ground - missing Natsume by a few inches - taking the surprised/demented/crazy kunoichi by surprise. Once she realized who was snuggling her like a little puppy, she gave a little laugh and mussed his spiky blonde hair affectionately, "Ohayo, Naru."

"Oi, dobe, you're making a racket," now _that _voice took Ren by surprise as well - a really, really _bad _surprise - that made her lightly push off Naruto with apologies and stare into the deep, vengeance-filled eyes of Uchiha Sasuke.

"Ohayo, Uchiha," Ren said flatly.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and nodded at her with acknowledgement. He went away then with _more _doubts in his head. Now _Ren _was acting cold to him. What the hell did he do to get on her bad side!

As Natsume, Kotarou, Sakura and _hell_, even _Naruto _noticed the tension in the air was a lot heavier than before - before Sasuke arrived - and wondered what was the problem. The heavy tension didn't last long though, when you-know-who(s) poofed right here and then.

"YOU JACKASS SADIST! I WASN'T READY YET!"

"HAVEN'T YOU REALIZED THE TIME YOU GODDAMN PERVERT? WE'RE ALREADY TEN MINUTES LATE!"

"YOUR WATCH IS RUNNING FAST, BASTARD!"

"SENSEI!" Naruto, Sakura and Kotarou shouted. This stopped the jounin from arguing like a bunch of brats and gladly removed the tension Sasuke and Ren applied on earlier. To completely erase it from the atmosphere, Naruto's comment made everyone besides the two jounin chuckle, "Wow, Kakashi-sensei! You should be with Haiku-sensei more often so you won't be late for training! Dattebayo!"

"Urusai (shut up), Naruto!" Kakashi shouted angrily.

After the Confusion

"Right, Team 7 and Team 15," Kakashi said back into his composed manner, "Today, we will be sparring against each other."

Kakashi and Haiku gauged their students' reactions: Sakura was crestfallen, Naruto looked pumped up, no surprise, and much to Haiku's chagrin, Sasuke looked a little _too _confident to his liking. He didn't have to guess his own students' reactions though. Ren was still wary (of being matched up with Sasuke), Natsume looked as impassive as ever and Kotarou seemed pretty bored.

"First match up, Haruno Sakura vs. Natsume," Kakashi called out.

A minuscule grin passed his features; Natsume gave his crimson blades to Ren, who - slightly surprised - took them without a word. "I'll go easy this time," he said with a crack of his knuckles, "No katanas. Just shuriken and kunai."

"Don't be too cocky, Natsume," Kakashi scolded, "you're underestimating Sakura's abilities."

"You haven't even seen my abilities!" Sakura protested, not wanting to be pummelled to death by her new one-sided crush. Ren sighed as she gave Natsume a pretend pat on the back when she was actually pulling his shirt slightly and whispering in a hushed tone, "Just go for 30% of your power, please, getting Haruno beaten to the pulp will _not _make you look good."

Natsume gave her a look of surprise and nodded, rudely shrugging her off as everyone backed off and Sakura stepped forward, kunai in hand.

Kakashi and Haiku, apart as far as they could as usual, glanced at both participants as Kakashi called out, "Hajime (Start)!"

Most of them were blown away when both Sakura and Natsume dashed across each other with normal ninja speed (though it was easily seen that Natsume was faster than Sakura), leaping into the air when the angle was perfect for Sakura, she threw her kunais with perfect precision but was easily blocked when Natsume performed some hand seals:

_Tora _(Tiger) - _Ushi _(Ox) - _Tora _(Tiger)

"Earth Element: Earth Wall!" a huge wall made entirely of rock-solid earth shot up from the ground and Sakura's weapons basically stuck onto the wall. Haiku smirked at his sworn enemy, who was screaming mentally in his head_, How did a _genin _do that! _

"Nani!" Sakura shouted as Natsume, using the incredible confusion as an advantage, jumped into the air, chakra in his feet and grabbed a smoke bomb from his kunai pouch and threw it near Sakura. She shrieked as it went off. The others backed up into the trees, including the two jounin who (almost) didn't make it because they were running off in different directions.

Sasuke was scowling from the tree (Sasuke - top branch, Ren and Kotarou - one branch lower, Naruto - fell into a bush), he mutually hated the other brunette genin from the start and didn't like it that he was also able to use Elemental Chakra. His pride - unimaginably - dropped, his Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu didn't seem so grand to his eyes anymore.

The smoke cleared and Sakura - as well as everybody else - was surprised that she had not yet been attacked and the fact that Natsume was pretty much nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, while Sakura let her guard down, and from Naruto's view from the bushes, caught the sight of two kunai being aimed at her back from the tallest tree. Being the loudmouthed idiot he was, he shouted, "Sakura-chan! Watch out!"

Sakura - for once - listened to Naruto and looked behind her. Instinctively, she dodged it by moving to the left, wrong move. From Natsume's perspective, he had laid out traps in the smoke silently like a silent killer, assuming that Sakura would only move to the right, left, back or front, and quickly dashed to hide in the most convinient, highest branch of a tree so he could have a bird's eye view of everything before him.

An invisible string that Natsume always kept in his kunai pouch was placed in an intricate, complicated fashion and was obviously the trigger to the ten shuriken that shot from a variety of places. The two 'kunai' that was earlier shot at Sakura poofed and to everyone's amazement/surprise/shock, transformed into two - blood and flesh - Natsumes.

The first Natsume's fingers suddenly shot out visible chakra strings, all controlling the ten shuriken whilst the second Natsume ran to Sakura and using only one fist, slammed Sakura down. The poor girl writhed in pain as the first Natsume's skilled fingers effectively landed the kunais and pierced themselves through Sakura's sleeves, dress and ninja sandals. The second Natsume disappeared, being a Shadow Clone after all.

The chakra strings slowly vanished from the tips of Natsume's fingers as he grunted, looking disdainfully at the struggling pink-haired kunoichi who was fruitlessly trying to get out of the shuriken.

"Natsume...wins."

_Haiku _was shocked, this guy could use Shadow Clones _and _Elemental Jutsu _and _chakra strings! He seriously wouldn't be surprised if Kakashi had the same reaction as him. And after what he had heard from his other student, Ren, who had told Natsume to hold back..._HOLD BACK! YOU CALL _THAT _HOLDING BACK! HE DEFEATED AN OPPONENT WITH BASICALLY NONETHELESS ONLY **THREE **_JUTSU, KUNAI AND SHURIKEN...**WITHOUT EVEN HARMING HER**!__

Ren had this huge, deathly urge to roll over the floor laughing her ass off, and she wasn't the only one, Kotarou had already fallen off the branch and was contorting with silent laughter.

Sasuke and Naruto were beyond amazed. _He was able to defeat her without even scratching her...was he holding back? _Sasuke's attention was diverted to the raven-haired heiress who was smiling with relief. _He _could _have held back especially if Tsuki requested him not to hurt Sakura..._Sasuke was in such brutal, emotional _agony _now. He only hoped that the bastard was only holding back _a little..._

Under Kakashi's Observation

He was having mixed emotions. Relief - that Sakura was not injured. Disappointment - that Sakura lost and now he had to face Haiku's ego. Amazement - obvious reasons. Anxiety - that they would be fearful opponents in the Chuunin Exams. Regret - that he had been placed in this screwed team/for even requesting a genin team this year.

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Ren hopped off the tree, passed by Natsume and gave him a real pat on the back, handed back his katanas to him and muttereda soft, "Nice work" before running towards Sakura with Naruto behind her as she pulled out the shuriken embedded in Sakura's clothes and Naruto trying to comfort Sakura, who blatantly brushed him away and stared at Ren.

Ren glanced up and gave her a comforting smile. No matter how much Sakura was indifferent to her, she was still a girl who needed a bit of pep and comfort one time and then. "Next time, Haruno," Ren advised, "when you're stuck in a situation where you can't see, jump as far away as you can from you enemy and don't ever let your guard down." The other girl didn't reply so Ren walked back and dumped herself next to Kotarou, who was hugging Natsume for a job well done, Natsume blushing and muttering, "Damn you Kotarou".

"Next match," Haiku called in his smooth, strict tone, after mysteriously cleaning up the whole place, "Uchiha Sasuke vs. Tsuki Ren."

Ren flinched and gave Haiku the worst glare she had in her arsenal (only used against jerkass impassioned bastards). Sasuke, actually smiling for once, jumped off the branch gracefully like the damn perfectionist Uchiha he was. Kotarou gave her a dazzling smile and a relaxing rub on her shoulder, which Ren returned with a nervous smile as Natsume half-smiled and murmured a nearly inaudible, "Kick his screwed up ass."

Ren, like Natsume, passed Ying to the two genin before chakra-jumping three meters in front of Sasuke. "Getting a little confident, eh, Tsuki?" Sasuke smirked, getting ready in the normal taijutsu Academy stance. Ren's face - what was very common when playing poker, sparring, blackjack etc... - transformed into (obviously) Poker Face, the type of face that almost always got her winning in MANY of the things she did against her brother.

She went into the more advanced Tsuki taijutsu stance, which surprised mainly everyone. Haiku analyzed her stance. No openings. No flaws. _The legendary Tsuki clan are amazing_, Haiku thought skeptically.

"Hajime!"

At first, neither of them made a move. Seeing this as a fleeting oppurtunity to show off his mad skills to intimidate the Tsuki, he dashed across the ground and started engaging the girl in a fierce taijutsu battle. Their fists locked into each other's and they jumped back. Sasuke made three bunshin and attacked Ren simultaneously, who fended herself with graceful chakra punches and kicks though Sasuke managed to graze her neck with a kunai, in close proximity to her again.

Sasuke made a swipe at her legs, she merely jumped and started forming seals.

_Ne _(Rat) - _Tora _(Tiger) - _Inu _(Dog) - _Ushi _(Ox) - _U _(Rabbit) - _Tora _(Tiger)

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"

Focusing the chakra in her throat, she spouted fireballs from her mouth, all aiming to the Uchiha, who was taken off guard but was still able to dodge the fireballs using minimal chakra. He was sweating - from the burning flames - and from incessant, newborn adrenalin. _Shit! _he cussed as a fireball nearly obliterated him, fortunately, he had flipped backwards and landed on the ground with sweat beading his forehead.

Ren was cool. Ren was fearless. Ren was...so guilty of using a high-level fire style jutsu on her 'friend'.

Sasuke, seeing an opening while she was in the middle of her 'Guilt Reminiscing' Zone, leapt into the air and with brilliant accuracy, threw two kunais from his kunai pouch in an instant and pinned down the girl by the sandals. _Hell_, he thought, she didn't even seem a slight bit fazed!

Feeling victory in his hands, he performed the seals for Uchiha's famous Fire Style Jutsu.

_Mi _(Snake) - _Tora _(Tiger) - _Saru _(Monkey) - _I _(Boar) - _Uma _(Horse) - _Tora _(Tiger)

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!"

Time seemed to slow down as a huge burst of high-pressure, intensifying, blood-boiling flames escaped his mouth, aiming towards the defenseless Tsuki.

"REN-CHAN/REN/TSUKI!" Naruto, Kotarou, Sakura, Haiku and even Kakashi and Natsume shouted. After the flames diminshed, sense seemed to have knocked into Sasuke after realizing what he had done. _Oh fuck_, he thought, panicking, _I just killed her! What in hell's name am I gonna do! _

But in the fried/burnt place Ren should have died at, she seemed to have disappeared completely. There wasn't even a speck of blood or a bone or an organ, but, in her place, was a big fat log. Realization dawned on Haiku and Kakashi, who had used the jutsu the day before to dodge Sasuke's fire ball jutsu (Kakashi not Haiku)

_Substitution Jutsu! _they thought, extremely relieved that there had not been a death in their hands.

"Not bad, Uchiha," the voice was so chilling and frightening that it almost sent the sweating Uchiha down to his knees, "but you should've pinned me down _completely_. Substitution Jutsu does wonders, you know."

Sasuke swerved around as quickly as he could and attempted to stab the crazy kekkei genkai-bearing princess with the kunai but the girl easily caught it. Sasuke's eyes widened as he met her own glaring tints.

Those cheery, electric blue eyes had been switched into a pair of deathly, dark, pitless, sorrow-filled holes filled with torture and insanity. Sasuke shuddered but couldn't stop staring at those pained eyes. Only his willpower motivated him to focus. He released the kunai and used all the chakra he could summon to kick Ren in the stomach, and her dark eyes vanished, replaced with her normal blue tints.

She gave a small cry of pain as she held her stomach with one hand and the other started throwing hailstorms of kunais and shuriken with pinpoint accuracy that made Sasuke's look weak. Sasuke, almost out of chakra, attempted to dodge every single one of the weapons. There were thirty in estimation. He dodged two from the left, stepped back when one nearly cut off his cockatoo hair, jumped when three almost struck him from behind and did the same routine over and over again.

Finally, resting for only a second, a kunai cut into his arm, sending a wave of pain into his veins. His fast movements started to gradually decrease as he got scratched on the cheek with a shuriken, stabbed twice lightly on the back by kunais until he dropped to his knees when another stream stabbed his legs. There was a lot of blood, mainly Sasuke's, as it trickled down from his arm, his legs, as a pool of blood surrounded him. It irked Ren to see this much blood since the Tsuki Clan's assassination.

"Winner, Tsuki Ren," Kakashi said quickly, as the whole of Team 7 went to Sasuke's side.

"Oi, Teme! Get a hold of yourself!" Naruto shouted at his sworn rival.

"Sasuke-kun! Please speak to us!"

"Stay back," Ren ordered as he walked over to Sasuke and started to pull out her weapons despite Sakura's and Naruto's pleads. They shut up, though, when her hands hovered over to Sasuke's more fatal wounds and a sudden, soft blue glow emanated from her palms. _Healing chakra_, Natsume, Haiku and Kakashi thought.

The gushing of blood stopped and Sasuke's skin seemed to reform itself as she did the same technique over and over again on his legs and back. "T-Tsuki...how did you do that?" Sakura asked, her words seeming to be stuck in her throat.

"My brother Hiro-nii taught me some healing techniques," Ren said in a cool, emotionless voice, as she healed the last fatal wound. Sasuke grunted and held onto Naruto and Sakura for support, but for Ren, he gave her a look that said: _What ARE you?_

Haiku patted Ren awkwardly in the back and said, "Good thing you held back."

Ren didn't reply as she walked over to her comrades who were looking at her in passive expectation. "Good job, Ren-chan," Kotarou said, smiling gloriously at her. As she passed Natsume, he asked, "How much were you holding back?"

"50%, if I didn't activate Raven Eyes it would've been 80%," she whispered back, shocking the brunette as she catapulted on a tree branch and sat there waiting for her teacher to clear up the mess she made.

Later

"Last match: Hideki Kotarou vs. Uzumaki Naruto," Kakashi called out.

"Nya!" Kotarou cutely mewed as he entered stage one neko transformation. Natsume smiled and rubbed his ear affectionately, Ren patted his head. Meanwhile, Sakura had just caught Kotarou's little transformation and almost squealed her heart out at his cuteness. Natsume was as hot as Sasuke but Kotarou was just_ too cute _to pass up!

Kotarou threw his beautiful katana to Natsume with his tail and leapt forward gracefully like a feline on all fours, clawing the ground for annoying his feet as he stretched and 'nyaa'ed some more. Naruto, of course, freaked out and shouted, "HOLY SHIT, KOTAROU YOU'RE A CAT?"

Even Sasuke seemed surprised at Kotarou's odd transformation and found a trickle of blood dropping from his nostril. He quickly wiped it away before anyone saw it. At least (hopefully) now some of his fan club members were finally leaving him the hell alone. He'd have to thank Ren for introducing them.

Kotarou's 'ears' twitched as Kakashi's eyes widened. He commented bluntly, "Reminds me of a girl from Icha-Icha Paradise."

Haiku flushed in fury and he punched the old perverted fool right between the eyes and shouted hysterically, "DON'T YOU DARE THINK OF ANYTHING EROTIC INVOLVING **MY **STUDENTS, HATAKE KAKASHI!"

"And _who's _thinking erotically, you closet pervert!" Kakashi retorted victoriously.

"Hey that's my line!" Naruto shouted from the distance.

"Can we get this started?" Natsume, Kotarou and Ren asked in unison, causing everyone to sweatdrop.

The jounin continued fighting on Haiku's 'secret closet pervert thoughts' so Natsume (chibified with those half-lidded chibi eyes) started off the match with a "Hajime!"

Unlike using strategies like Sakura and Sasuke, Naruto used - of what Kotarou saw Natsume used earlier - the seal for Shadow Clone. Immediately, twenty shadow clones appeared around the original Naruto and started running towards Kotarou.

_No strategies? _Kotarou sweatdropped as he launched forward on all fours, giving some of his sanity over to his animal instincts. Building up the 'animal' chakra in his lungs, he gave a deep breath as the Narutos grew closer. Similar to the flashback Haiku had used against him, the roar practically _shook _the leaves of the trees and everyone started to cover their ears with anything that could block out that ear-piercing roar. It was particularly difficult for Ren as she had animal-honed senses and her ears started to bleed profusely.

"T-Tsuki!" Natsume shouted in faint horror at the blood flowing down her cheeks.

Hiroto didn't stop until three-quarters of the Narutos who got close immediately evaporated on the spot.

"Fall back! Fall back!" the original Naruto yelled hysterically as the fallen Shadow Clones quickly got up and started stumbling across one another in a messy fashion, in the end, all substaining stampede-injuries and dissipating. Kotarou stopped, sending relief to the spectators as he grinned and started running with leopard speed towards the blonde shinobi. His movements seemed to fade to many of the shinobis' eyes - excluding Kakashi and Haiku - as the grass suddenly looked like it had just been ignited by a speeding comet.

He paused as he leapt into the air, claws out, and dived towards the unusually calm Naruto.

The blonde merely stood at the ready, arm reached out and started -

- Rubbing his neko ears.

At this point, most of Kotarou's human sanity had already been converted to his animal instincts, therefore he was now sitting in a catlike position, mewing and rubbing up Naruto's leg in a provocative manner.

Not surprisingly, the tense shinobi had all (those sitting on high places) fallen off their positions and were sweat-dropping. Haiku paled at the thought that his student lost because of _that _and Kakashi was mentally thanking God for selecting Konoha's No. 1 Maverick Ninja on his team.

Nevertheless, the genins' expressions weren't much less different only that Sakura was squealing like there was no tomorrow, Sasuke was pretty much nosebleeding, secretly hiding in the canopy of leaves and Ren and Natsume were practically banging their heads against the tree at their friend's sensitivity.

"Baka Kotarou ~" Ren moaned, blood gushing out of her head.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!" Kakashi made no hesitation to announce.

Immediately, Naruto stopped petting the excited Kotarou and started jumping in the air screaming, "YATTA! YATTA! I BEAT HIM!"

Kotarou, slightly exhausted, fell flat on the ground and his ears and tail disappeared. His forehead was beaded with sweat and his cheeks flushed deep amber. Kotarou swore under his breath, though it could easily be heard by the two jounin, who were partly amazed by Naruto's clever yet sneaky victory and the kindly Kotarou's unusual ability to swear as much as his two teammates.

"Did you see, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked loudly to her.

Sakura forcefully smiled - as Ren noted - at Naruto, probably trying to make amends for her bitchiness, "N-Nice work, Naruto."

Naruto's eyes shone like stars and psuedo tears appeared in his eyes. "Sakura-chan..." he sniffed. Sakura sweatdropped.

"I want ramen," Ren suddenly said unexpectedly.

"Random comment much?" Natsume stated sarcastically. Ren glared at him to shut up.

Meanwhile with Haiku and Kakashi

The two jounin teachers stared at their students in confusion/amazement/surprise. Almost all of the anger and tensity in the air disappeared when Naruto won. They were acting like nothing _happened_. Was this the power of obliviousness? they wondered.

After the minor confusion, the jounin decided to (arguably) help out their students by pointing out their flaws. Ren's biggest flaw was focus, she was easily put in a daze, as Haiku put it, which gave her opponent the upper hand, Kakashi added. Natsume's flaw was underestimating people. Even if he knew the person well, Haiku lectured, it was no excuse to underestimate them.

Kotarou had two flaws, unlucky for him, one was his ears (cat ears) and the other was his lack of strategy, though he was still better than Naruto. Sakura and Naruto, much to their shinobi pride, had so many flaws that they lost count. And last but not the least, Sasuke basically had no flaws. Even Haiku admitted that his foundation was absolutely perfect and would've won if he trained ten times harder. This comment made Sasuke tick mark.

"Now," Kakashi announced, now in a minor tug-of-war for control with Haiku, "I've got a surprise for all of you."

"Nani, nani, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled.

Kakashi smiled evilly, which made Ren, Natsume and Sasuke slightly self-conscious about what was hitting them, "We will be playing Reality Check."

**A/N: Phew! Five chapters! Though technically, it's three...ah who cares? Thanks to all of you readers again for taking time to read this! And just to explain beforehand, 'Reality Check' is a game I made up out of my mind (though it is _possible _that it came from a computer game of tv show I don't know...). It basically centers around Genjutsu: one plays a Genjutsu - a very realistic one - on their opponent, and their opponent will have to try to see if they're real or not...Forget it, I'll explain in the next chapter. **

**And my promise on typing more words for each chapter? Sorry, it may have to be reduced to 8000 to 15000 per chapter. This allows me to update quicker as well. **

**Kudos!**

**HinakoNamikaze99**


	5. AUTHOR ALERT

**AUTHOR ALERT!**

_Dear my fellow readers,_

Whether this is unfortunate or fortunate (in your opinion anyway), I shall not be continuing: The Tale of Tsuki Ren.

I will not take it down, neither will I continue it.

To those who have enjoyed reading it, I am very sorry for my decision, but nothing you say will make me change my mind.

Well, I guess this is it. Good-bye Ren, good-bye Hiroto, and good-bye to Natsume, Kotarou and Haiku.

_My best regards,_

HinakoNamikaze99

P.S. I shall be looking forward to reading all **_your_ **fanfics


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